Pokemon Quest Life
by OPFan37
Summary: Hello? Oh hey! It's working! Okay, to whoever is listening, my name is Elin Ray, and I'm communicating from another world! DON'T TURN THIS OFF! I'm not crazy! Me and a bunch of other people got transported here and got turned into Pokemon! And now we've been tasked with saving the world for some reason!...Huh? Tell them it's a SYOC? What the heck is tha-
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Unexpected Experiment

Well, how did it start?

Oh right, introductions first. Sorry about that.

My name is Elin Ray, I'm 16 and I WAS pretty tall with black hair and blue eyes, and that's all you need to know.

If your still interested in mine, and a lot of good peoples stories, then please read on.

It happened at 10:08 pm on a Saturday night in June...can't remember the specific date. I had just finished grinding on Omega Ruby and was ready to turn in for the night.

'Thank god its Sunday tomorrow.' I thought as I closed my 3DS and turned off my light before wrapping myself in my covers. 'Think I'll play Smash Bros, I can finish off that homework Monday morning...'

My descent into subconscious ponderings was interrupted by a tapping noise that made me flinch, noises at night always have that effect on you, your brain starts to panic and think that a burglars trying to break into your house or something.

I cautiously opened an eye, only to see a small blue light from my 3DS. Puzzled, I sat up. I thought I had turned it off, or, did I just forget to turn it off and thought I did? Nevertheless, I picked it up and opened it to click the power button, and I saw something I did not expect.

Both screens were black, save for a Rotom on the top one, waving its electrical arms around frantically with its traditional grin on its face.

'What is this? A special message or something?' I thought.

Just then, a text box popped up on the upper screen, simply saying 'Hello!'.

'...Okay.'

The text box closed and opened again, now reading 'What's your name?' before the keyboard appeared on the touch screen. Of course, this was kinda weird, was this a special announcement or fan questionnaire or something? And why so late at night? I get Japan's timezone is different but...finally, I decided to just play it out.

I typed in my name and entered it, there was a pause before a new text box popped up reading 'Elin? Nice to meet you! My name is Rotom!' Then another box replaced it: 'I'm doing an experiment right now, and I'm looking for humans to try it out on! Can you help me?'

It seemed pretty harmless at the time, so I typed in 'Sure' and sent it. The Rotom then started jumping up and down happily before another box appeared: 'Thank you! I want you to know this will be perfectly harmless and you won't regret it! Just make sure not to switch this device off, okay?' And so the Rotom vanished in a small blip.

'Let's see what this is, then.' I leaned back on my bed and waited patiently for any other type of response, until I saw a little blue circle on the top screen.

I stared at the circle as several more appeared around it, and a small bright light appeared in the centre of them.

'Sooooo...is this-' Suddenly the light burst into a bright flash, and I may not know what happened in my room after that, but I'm pretty sure that I vanished, and my 3DS fell onto my bed.

 **Dear Arceus, its been a long time...hello again, Pokemon community! Trust me, I've been here the whole time, but now I'm writing again!**

 **Now then, for those of you who are unaware, this is a sort of reboot of my last group Pokemon project; Pokemon Split Worlds. To be honest, I couldn't keep up with it because I accepted too many OC's...30.**

 **So, for fans of that story, consider this a spiritual successor to Split Worlds, sorry it took so long!**

 **Now then, again, this shall be a SYOC, and for readers of Split Worlds you'll see many characters brought over to this story. Now then, in order for me to do this CORRECT this time. I'm setting some ground rules.**

 **1\. Only the Top 10 best recieved OC's shall be accepted!**

 **2\. The OC Form must be completed to the highest level of detail! I shall NOT accept forms lasting only one sentence!**

 **3\. Make your OC unique! I don't want a swamping of dark edgy characters with depressing backstories, make them stand out! The only thing that links all OC's together is that they are humans from our world transformed into Pokemon.**

 **Now then, onto the OC Form, it is down below:**

 **Name: (Surname optional)**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Appearance: (As a human obviously. Include any features that get passed to them as a pokemon such as scars or any objects of clothing.)**

 **Personality:**

 **Likes/Dislikes:**

 **Species: (Now, I'm being specific on this one. You can have any pokemon from Gen I to Gen VI. You have to be in first evolutionary form, however if it evolves twice you can have secondary evolutionary form e.g Dewott, Nuzleaf, Lampent e.t.c. Also, NO LEGENDARIES.)**

 ** **Evolution: (Do they evolve later in the story? Mega Evolution IS allowed, but way down the line.)****

 **Quirks: (What I mean by this is any traits they gain as a pokemon. Such as an Oshawott getting protective of their scalchop or an Eevee who likes to be petted.)**

 ** ** **Moveset: (Four move limit does not apply, however I will say a limit of no more then ten.)******

 ** ** **Love Interest: (Optional, details afterwards.)******

 ** ** **Other: (Anything I've missed? Fears? Hobbies? e.t.c?)******

 **Now I know I already said choice of pokemon bracketed in the species category. But I say this now, there can only be one pokemon, so I'm not gonna accept 10 Eevee's. It's a case of first come first serve, so I might have to PM you to, regrettably, ask you to change your choice. You can choose starters as well.**

 **Now I shall list my own OC's that shall be reappering in this story, you'll see why in a bit. (Note: These are DELIBERATELY undetailed, YOU guys can't do this.)**

 **1.) Name: Elin Ray**

 **Age: 17**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Appearance: Tall with blue eyes and black hair that sticks out on the left side. He wears a Red jumper and black and red striped shirt with blue jeans.**

 **Personality: Is very kind and polite to others, but can be quite in front of people he doesn't like.**

 **Likes/Dislikes: Likes: friends, food and pokemon. Dislikes: Bad people, loud noises.**

 **Species/Quirks/Moveset: To be revealed. (No spoilers!)**

 **Love Interest: Open**

 **Other: Fear of spiders in general. Is slightly autistic.**

 **2) Name: Sarah**

 ** **Age: 15****

 **Gender: Female**

 ** **Appearance: Has pink dyed hair in two pigtails and a large pink bow in her hair. She has green eyes and wears an orange shirt with a pink skirt.****

 ** **Personality: Acts like she's on a constant sugar rush, and can't get enough of cute things.****

 ** **Likes/Dislikes: Likes: Cute things, including pokemon and sweets. Dislikes: Anything 'uncute'.****

 ** **Love Interest: TAKEN!****

 **3.) Name: Daniel**

 **Age: 17**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Appearance: Dark blue eys with average thin framed glasses and shaggy brown hair, plus the beginnings of a beard/moustache combo. Wears a leather jacket over a plain dark blue shirt and blue jeans.**

 **Personality: Always seems positive and has a good sense of humour. He also keeps a level head in any situation.**

 **Likes/Dislikes: Likes: pokemon, Breakfasts, technology. Dislikes: Stuck-ups and bad food.**

 **Love Interest: Open!**

 **4.)** **Name: Janine**

 **Age: 16**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Appearance: Has long blond parted hair and amber eyes. She wears a green jacket and cream coloured skinnys.**

 **Personality: Is incredibly shy and has difficulty making friends. She tries to hide behind everything a lot of the time. She also likes to help others.**

 **Likes/Dislikes: Likes: Helping others. Dislikes: People and animals in pain in sorrow.**

 **Love Interest: Open!**

 **Other: She is an excellent baker, but prefers to leave anything she bakes out anonymously for the morning.**

 **Now then, about love interests. Your first option (If you choose so.) is to send in two OC's, yes, I'll allow that. Your second option is to choose a main character, they're all free, but again, it's first come first serve. Or, you can suggest the type of Pokemon you want your character to fall in love with, and I'll introduce someone later down the line.**

 **Now then, I believe that is everything. Thank you for reading this introductory chapter and I hope to recieve some OC's soon! Thank you for reading! SORRY FOR MAKING YOU GUYS WAIT!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Successful Experiment

Falling...no, rather plummeting.

That was what I felt like right now. Plummeting, down, down, down with nothing else around me.

I couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't speak, just feel, and I sure DID feel.

I felt like my whole body was being compressed, like a tiny suit your being squished into. My ribs felt really painful, along with my forehead, forgive my language, but it hurt like a bitch. Eyes hurt too, losing the feeling in my fingers, oh yes, I remember it all vividly.

And then what felt like an impact, and instant darkness.

A pause, the time in which you float around in an unconscious state.

And then, my eyes slowly opened, a blinding light engulfed the crack of vision and I closed them again. This time I opened them more slowly, and found myself staring up at a light hanging overhead.

I groaned as I sat up and rubbed my aching head. 'Agghhh, is this what a hangover feels like?' I looked up and my eyes widened in realisation. I was currently not sitting in my room. Instead I was sitting on a small wooden bed with white sheets in a bare wooden room with some stairs leading down in the corner.

"What the hell? Where am I?" I thought aloud. "The last thing I remember was that message on my 3DS, then a bright light, then I was falling...this doesn't make any sense." I steadily got up, but I felt unsteady on my feet and I had to lean against the wall. "I don't feel right...it must be from that weird falling sensation..." I couldn't afford to waste time, though. I needed to find out where I was as soon as possible.

"I think I hear something upstairs." A voice downstairs said.

"Oh! Maybe they're awake!" A female voice exclaimed.

'People? Maybe they can help me.' I made to walk towards the stairs, but I lost my balance and fell flat on my face. "Ouch!"

I heard footsteps come up the stairs, and a gasp. "Oh no! Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah." I clenched my eyes shut to block out the dizzying sensation as I got up on my hands and knees. "Just...dizzy."

"Ah, so your a boy." The girl voice said, with me being a bit puzzled that she couldn't tell my data. "It's a miracle your alive! I mean, falling out of the sky isn't common y'know."

"Wh-What?" I raised my head and slowly opened my eyes. "What are you talking abou-" I stopped short as my eyes fully opened, and then became the size of saucepans.

I wasn't staring up at a regular person, oh no I was looking up at a MINCINNO, from POKEMON, wearing a PINK APRON!

There was a pause as my mind set to work, trying to discern what exactly this situation meant. Had I gone insane? Hit my head too hard? Was my vision messed up? Dead? Or was I, by some unexplained supernatural phenomenon actually looking at a Pokemon?

"Um...are you alright?" She asked.

"...Yes. Perfectly fine." I stated as I stood up and brushed myself down. "Can I just ask, am I insane?"

"Err..." She gave me a blank look. "I don't know. Do you feel insane?"

"I...I don't know." I replied honestly. "Last time I checked, Pokemon didn't exist."

"Really?" She tilted her head in confusion. "Well, that's kinda weird, since your a Pokemon too."

Again, another pause. Only this time my mind was trying not to overheat.

"Wh-What!?" I gasped. "Nononononono! I-I'm human!"

"Human?" Once again she was puzzled. "I always thought humans were myths. Besides, if you were a human, I don't think you'd fit in this inn."

"What are you saying!?" I panicked. "I'm a human! Se-" I froze as I noticed my hand. However, it was not a fleshy appendage with four fingers and a thumb, it was instead a white spike and nothing more. "What the hell is wrong with my hand!?"

To add to my panicking, a Shuckle wearing a bowtie climbed up the stairs. "Minnie! What in Arceus' name is going on here!?"

"I think he's delusional!" The Mincinno replied.

"What is wrong with me!?" I pleaded with the two Pokemon.

"Wrong?" The Shuckle popped in to its shell and popped back out with a hand mirror. "If you think something's wrong, then check." He held the mirror up to my face, and I screamed from what I saw.

Instead of my normal face which I was so accustomed to staring at in a mirror, a Pawniard was staring back at me.

"P-P-Pawniard!?" I finally took notice of myself, the helmet and scythe atop my head, the blades protruding from my chest, the blades on the end of my hands. "I'm not a Pawniard! I can't be a Pawniard! This has to be a dream or something! I just can't-"

I was cut off as a powerful force pushed me back and stuck me to the side of the wall. I looked down to see brown goo holding me in place.

"Ahem." The Shuckle cleared his throat. "Apologies for the Sludge Bomb, but I can't have you getting hysterical."

"Okay...okay..." I panted, trying to calm myself.

"Minnie, would you please get us some Berry Juice?" The Shuckle asked.

"Yessir, Mr. Shuck." She nodded as she ran on all fours down the stairs.

Mr. Shuck crawled over to me. "Now then, young monster, let's get you down from there, and you can tell us about your situation."

So after being freed from the Sludge Bomb, I was led downstairs to a table next to a bar, where two drinks were set, and I told them about everything I know.

"Well, I've heard crazier tales in my lifetime." Mr. Shuck said.

"I'm serving a human! So cool!" Minnie squealed.

"Thank you..." I mumbled, looking at my arm, which was still shaking nervously. I reached for my cup, then remembered I no longer had fingers and retracted my arms. "So, where am I now?"

"Well, currently, your in my humble establishment, Shuck's Inn." Mr. Shuck said, before gesturing to the window. "But, if you want me to be more general, your currently in Oreace, the Town of Beginnings."

"Oreace?" I echoed, getting out of my chair and walking over to the window to look out of it. I was met with a row of wooden houses with several Pokemon such as Bellsprout, Sentret, and Hariyama walking past.

"Yep! It's a major local point for traders, families and others to come and make a life in." Minnie said.

"It does look nice." I admitted. "But, I really need some answers. The thing is, I don't know where to start."

"Is there anything else you remember?" Mr. Shuck asked.

"Ummmm..." I tapped my left blade against my head scythe (You don't know how weird that is for me.) cringing from the sound of metal against metal. "...A Rotom was on the screen before the bright light."

"A Rotom?" Minnie repeated. "We have a Rotom here in Oreace."

"Wait, you do?" I exclaimed.

"Yes, he lives on the edge of town." Mr. Shuck said.

"Maybe he knows something!" I nodded. "Even if they're unrelated, I have to go see this guy!"

"If you think it's a lead, then go for it!" Minnie cheered.

"Would you like help getting there?" Mr. Shuck offered.

"Thanks you two, but I think I should go alone." I said. "If I'm gonna be here for a bit, then I'd better get used to things."

"That's very good of you." Mr. Shucks smiled. "Just remember, if you need any help, don't be afraid to come back and ask."

"I will." I think I smiled, I can't really tell with no mouth. I swear, I can feel teeth and lips, but no mouth! HOW DOES THAT WORK!?

Anyway, I reached for the door handle, then stopped and hung my head. "Can you please help me with the doorknob?"

"Don't worry, it's a push and pull." Minnie assured me.

"Oh." I tapped the door and it opened easily. "Thank you." I walked outside and closed the door behind me, finding myself on a stone street. "I sure hope I can do this..."

I walked down the street, trying to act natural as I passed by Pokemon of all types, shapes and sizes. Walking along I eventually came to the plaza, which was a fountain covered by a small garden, center piecing the crossroads.

However, the most notable thing was the tall clock tower standing up high, with a gold and cream style, whilst a large metal gear, constantly turning, stuck out of either side of the tower, whilst the face was large with stylized hands.

'Wow, this place is actually really pretty.' I thought to myself as I looked at my surroundings. 'Still though, why did this go all Mystery Dungeon and turn me into a Pokemon whilst bringing me here? I REALLY hope this Rotom has some answers.'

I took the east route and walked down until I found a clear white house with a giant hole in the roof, looking very out of place among the wood and brick establishments.

'This looks like the place.' I walked up to the door and pushed it open before peeking in. "Hello?"

I walked into the house, which looked like a lab from the assortment of inventions and bookcases scattered about the place. I particularly noticed a large device in the center of the room, holding a golden ring inside it.

"Huh? Is somebody there?" I jumped back as a bolt of blue lightning flashed in front of me before forming into a Rotom wearing swirly glasses. "Why, hello there! You seem new in town! Can I help you with anything?"

"Um, this may sound a bit weird..." I said. "But do you know anything about a message involving an experiment?"

At that, the Rotom stopped dancing around the air in front of me and lowered his glasses with his electric arm. "You, recieved my message?"

"YOUR message?"

"Success!" I jumped back at his sudden outburst. "The experiment was complete after all! Hoopa!"

"Huh? What?" A Hoopa emerged from behind a desk, eating a chocolate covered donut. I noticerd that the hoop on its left horn was missing.

"It was a success! We have one of them right here!" Rotom gestured to me.

"Wow, good job!" Hoopa congratulated as he stuffed his face with the rest of the donut. "Sho, thish Pawniard ish human?"

"Are you human?" Rotom questioned me.

"Y-Yes."

"Excellent!" He cried again. "Tell me, is it true you humans are ten feet tall and eat each other?"

"...No."

"Fascinating!" He zipped off somewhere and came back with a notepad and pen which he wrote down on.

Meanwhile, Hoopa retrieved its ring from the device and looked through it at me. "Man, he sure is ugly."

"Hey!" I shouted.

Rotom came over and looked through the ring too. "Oh yes! I remember you! You were the third to be tested on!"

"Wait, third?" This was moving too fast for me to keep up with. "There are more?"

"But of course! You need more then one variable to make sure an experiment is reliable!" He suddenly zipped in front of my face. "But where are my manners? I have yet to introduce myself! My name is Professor Doctor Rotom, pleased to make your acquaintance!"

"Likewise..." What else was I su[posed to say!? "Wait, Professor Doctor? Shouldn't you only have one of those titles?"

"I do indeed have both, my boy!" He told me before showing me the two certificates on his wall.

"Huh." I didn't even know what I was doing at that point.

"And my name's Hoopa!" The Hoopa said as he spun his ring around his finger. "Don't mind me, just a LEGENDARY awesome Pokemon."

"And my temporary lab assistant." Prof. Dr. Rotom said. "Now then, er..."

"Elin. Elin Ray."

"Elin. What brings you to my humble lab?"

I shook my head to get myself back on task. "Okay, you said you conducted some sort of experiment with that message you sent, and the next thing I know, I'm here and have been turned into a Pokemon, so what is going on!?"

"Ah, answers." He nodded. "Do not worry, I can give you those." He zipped over to an oven and went inside it, becoming Heat Rotom. "Do you want a snack?"

"N-No thanks, I'm good." I mumbled.

"Alright then." He zapped back out. "Well, I am a scientist and researcher, and I spend my days here conducting experiments. It was about a week ago that I met Hoopa here."

"Yo." The Legendary waved.

"As you can guess, it's rare for a Legendary Pokemon to ever appear, but Hoopa is a wandering Legendary, and he just so happened to come to Oreace." The Prof./Dr. continued. "And being a Pokemon of oppurtunity, I had to take this chance. For you see, Hoopa's rings have always fascinated me, and I've wanted to try experimenting with them.

"Can open holes in the fabric of reality, y'know." Hoopa grinned as he juggled his rings.

"Yes, and I wanted to see to what extent the rings can do. As such, I built this." He flashed over to his machine. "A Transmatter Amplifier, designed to increase the power of antimatteral power."

"Doc, too many big words." Hoopa said.

"Oh, yes, sorry. Basically, it boosts the rings power. I wanted to see how far the ring could reach! And by doing so, it appears I reached out to your human world!" He began flying around all over the place. "As you can imagine, I was shocked! Humans in our world are nothing more then myths! I was so fascinated, I had to continue!"

"And that's when I had the brilliant idea of bringing some humans here!" He proclaimed. "Using the power of Hoopa's ring, I could trransport several humans here, in order to learn more about them! I conducted it as an experiment; to see if I could truly transport a human to our world! So I sent out my message asking you to be a part of it!"

"Wait, if you could send out a message, why didn't you just ask us questions instead?" I suggested.

"My dear boy! I could never get sufficient data that way!" Rotom said. "No, meeting with you up close and personal was my intention!...Though, I didn't foresee you getting turned into Pokemon."

"What can I say? My hoops do some over-the-top stuff." Hoopa nodded.

"When we did manage to get several of you through, we thought you would come out of the ring." Rotom went on. "But instead, you were shot up into the sky! Thus, explaining the hole in my roof."

"Shot into thge sky!?" I shouted.

"Yes." He nodded. "On the plus side, you all caused a lovely meteor shower last night."

"Hooray." I said without emotion. "So, there's more of us?"

"Oh yes, but your the first I've seen so far."

"Okay." I tapped my blades together (still weird). "Look, I'm not saying that this place isn't amazing. Hell, seeing actual Pokemon like this, it's incredible! But...you still had no right to take me or others away from our homes without letting us know what we're getting ourselves into."

Rotom stopped hios frantic movements and looked down sadly with a sigh. "I was afraid you'd say that, I know it is a fault on my part, but please understand that I meant no ill intent."

I sighed. "I guess not...but do you at least have a way to get us home?"

He looked up at that. "Home?" There was a pause, and he turned away from me. "Oops, I hadn't thought of that."

"You WHAT!?" I screamed.

"I must admit, I didn't take that into account."

"DIDN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT!?" I raved. "Aren't you a scientist, doctor, thing!? Your supposed to account for everything!"

"Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my planning." He admitted.

"Can't you just put the ring back in the machine again?" I asked.

"Even if we did, it would be nearly impossible to find you home again." Rotom panicked. "There are hundreds of other worlds out there!"

I fell to my knees. "So...I'm stuck here?"

"No! No! Of course not!" Rotomk assured me. "Do not worry, I shall find a way to send you and the others back home...when I find them. I swear on my title as a Professor and doctor."

I looked up at him. This Pokemon may have screwed up bad, but he was also my only chance at getting home, I guess I had no choice.

"Alright, I trust you." I said as I stood back up. "Though, I'm still not used to being a Pawniard. I miss having apposable thumbs...and a mouth."

"Is that all your worried about?" Hoopa giggled as he slide a donut down my arm.

"A Pawniard's blades are more complex then you think." Rotom said. "They can harden into weapons, yes, but they are malleable when needed. Go on, give it a try."

"Malleable?" I looked at my left blade, and willed it to move as if it were a hand, making it turn a right angle. "I can do that?" I curled up both blades into fists, then uncurled them again. "Well they're not fingers, but they work." I stabbed the donut on my arm and held it in front of me. "And my mouth?"

"Try taking a bite out of that donut as you would normally." Rotom suggested.

Hesitantly, I did as he asked, and felt a chunk of donut suddenly appear in my mouth. I chewed and swallowed before notcing the bite mark on the donut. "How did I-"

"Mouthless Pokemon are another thing I'm researching. I'll let you know if I gain any results." Rotom said as I wiped crumbs off of my mouthless face. "Now then, seeing as you might be here awhile, how about a grand town tour?"

"I...guess it couldn't hurt." I shrugged.

"Excellent!" "Oh boy!" Both Rotom and Hoopa cried as they headed for the door.

"Kiera! Could you help close up?" Rotom called.

"Kiera?" I thought aloud.

"She's the Doc's lab assistant. Carries stuff, helps around, y'know?" Hoopa said.

"Where is that girl?" Rotom pondered.

"Right here!" A sing-song voice called as a Klefki floated up and over to us.

"Ah, there you are, Kiera. I trust you overheard our conversation?" Rotom asked.

"Yep!" She nodded. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Human! I mean Elin!"

"Nice to meet you too." I replied.

Rotom closed the door and Kiera picked out a kery to lock the door with. "Now then, Elin, allow me to show you what Oreace has to offer!"

And so I went on a sighseeing tour with a Professor Doctor Rotom, an 'O' loving Hoopa, and a cheery little Klefki. Yeah, try saying that to yourself.

 **Yeah! New chapter! And a much longer one too!**

 **Allow me to just say that I didn't realise this story would get so much support! A lot of you guys from Split Worlds are back too! So thank you all!**

 **Now then, I haven't picked the Top 10 yet, as I want to see if anyone else will submit an OC, but I want to say this in advance:**

 **Please do not feel as if I disregard or dislike your OC in any way, shape or form if they are not selected to be part of this story. I love reading each and every OC idea, and I truly wish that I could include them all. However, with Split Worlds I simply accepted too many, and the pressure to keep every OC in order, to their own character, and to please their creators with enough focus time was too much to bear, and I couldn't continue it. So, if I do not accept your OC, it is because that I do not want to disappoint you by throwing them to the side.**

 **By the way, I shall admit that I made a mistake last chapter. The characters Daniel and Janine ARE free in terms of love interest, so if they take your fancy then opt for them. The only one who isn't available is Sarah, because a friend of mine already got her. Also, if you see any other characters that take your fancy as a love interest for your OC, such as Minnie, Kiera or even Hoopa, then just go for it.**

 **I think that's all from me. Again, thank you for your support, and I shall see you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Saving Oreace from Sandile! 

"Now then, Elin, let's give you a grand tour of Oreace!" Rotom declared. "Currently, we're in East Oreace, where, as you can see, my magnificent Lab is!" He gestured to it.

"I...kinda knew that." I said.

"Ah, of course! Of course!" He nodded. "Well then, down the road here, you will find the Question Center." I looked where he was pointing to see a large building with a 'Q' above it. "If you need any help on where to go or what to do, then that's your place!"

"Also, there's Housing Management!" Hoopa pointed to a large building next to it, which had a hammer and a wrench for a sign, whilst two Tumburr stood guard outside. "It's mainly occupied by Conkelldurr, Gurdurr and Timburr workers, but I hear their owner is away on business at the moment. They build houses." Never would have guessed.

"The rest is residential stuff." Keira added. "They're really good neighbors!"

"Come along now!" Hoopa pulled me into the area with the fountain in it.

"This is Oreace Square, the center of our fair city." Rotom smiled. "Many travelling merchants often gather here when they visit to sell their wares." Now that he mentioned it, there were a lot of backpack carrying Pokemon talking to passersby.

"So, Oreace is popular, then?" I asked.

"Of course!" Hoopa cheered. "It's overly popular! Why would I be here if it was not?"

I looked around and noticed two large buildings to the left and right of the northern path. The left building had a sign with a purple hooded cloak and a golden ring on it, whilst the right building had a sign that had an Oran Berry and a Pecha Berry on it.

"Hey, Rotom. What are these shops?" I asked, pointing at them.

"Am I glad you asked!" He said giddily whilst zipping all over the square. "These two shops are most important to 50% of our worlds popularity's lifestyles!"

"Seriously?" I looked at them both.

"Um, Professor Doctor?" Kiera nudged him. "Elin just got here, maybe we should wait until we get into that whole explanation."

"Hmmm...you make a good point, Kiera..." Rotom pondered. "Elin, do you mind if I explain them later?"

"I don't mind." I told him. "Besides, I WOULD like to look around a bit more."

"That's the spirit!" Kiera cheered.

"In that case, allow me to show you West Oreace." Rotom suggested as we moved along.

We went to another pathway, where several different buildings all spread out. We stopped in front of a building with a crossed fork and spoon on the sign above it.

"C'mon, you can tell what this place i, right?" Kiera asked.

"Cafe?" I guessed.

"Coooooooorrect!" Hoopa cheered. "You should come here when you've got the chompies, plus the bonuses are nice too!"

"Bonuses?" I echoed.

"All in due time." Rotom said as he adjusted his glasses, before gesturing me over to the next building, which was a two-story hut with a white winged letter on the top of it. "This is the Task Hut. If anybody has any problems, people post their problems here so that others can volunteer to help them, for a reward of course."

"Mystery Dungeon." I coughed under my breath.

"Did you say something?" Kiera asked.

"Nothing!" I stood up sharp.

We continued walking until we came to the last thing I expected: a runway! A shutter stood at the end with two hanger doors.

"This is our airport!" Rotom cheered. "It's used for special transport to other, specific areas. Unfortunately, its for specific passengers only."

"So, wait, you have brick and wooden houses, but an airport?" I asked sceptically.

"Confusing, ain't it?" Keira giggled.

"Technological advancement is natural, my boy!" Rotom grinned. "Of course, Oreace is a town that prides itself in its beginning, so the airport is as far as advancement shall come here...unfortunately."

"Don't look so down, Doc!" Hoopa grinned. "Old stuff is cool!"

"Is that because you've been around thousands of years?" Keira asked.

"Most possibly." Hoopa shrugged.

We returned to Oreace Square and headed to South Oreace, where we stopped outside Mr. Shuck's inn. "I know this place! It's Shuck's Inn."

"Ah, your familiar with it?" Rotom wondered.

"Yeah, Minnie and Mr. Shuck helped me out when I first woke up." I explained.

"Really? Then we should thank them!" Kiera said as she floated over to the door and rammed into it to push it open.

"Hello there, welcome to Shuck's I-" Minnie stopped short when she noticed me. "Ah! Elin! Your back! Mr. Shuck! Elin is back!"

"Excellent! Welcome back!" Mr. Shuck said as he crawled down the stairs. "And the rest of you are...?"

"Professor Doctor Rotom at your service, sir." Rotom bowed.

"Yo! I'm Hoopa!" Hoopa waved.

"And I'm Keira!" Keira sang.

"Of course, I could not forget the day you arrived, Hoopa." Mr. Shuck said as he sat down at a table. "And, er...Professor Doctor, you are a regular in Oreace are you not? Yet I've never seen you in town much.

"Ah, my apologies." Rotom said as he sat down opposite him. "I am a very busy Pokemon, I often forget about social interactions."

"So, Elin, did you find what you wanted to know?" Minnie asked.

"Pretty much." I nodded. "Turns out Rotom IS the one who brought me here."

"Fascinating." Mr. Shuck said. "How on earth did you accomplish that, sir?"

"Why, I'd be happy to explain." Rotom said as he started a long conversation.

"So, you work for him?" Minnie asked Kiera.

"Oh yeah! It's actually kinda fun!" She smiled as the two started a girly talk.

"Gosh, its so boring now!" Hoopa groaned at the two topics of discussion. "Come on, Elin. I'll tour you everything else in South Oreace."

"Um-" Before I could reply He seized my wrist and dragged me out the door.

"Okay! I'm tour overseer now!" He proclaimed. "Now to complete the tour of South Oreace!" He pointed to a small shop opposite of the inn, which had a bag of money as its symbol. "So that's storage. You store objects or money that you occasionally do not need there. Or if your holding too much stuff. The rest is just houses."

I noticed a little dark passageway, and pointed to it. "What about that?"

"That?" He looked like he was thinking for a moment. "I dunno. Looks cooky though, I'd not go near it, or something responsible like that."

"...How are you a Legendary?" I had to ask.

"Just am, man." He smirked at his own joke. "Oh yeah, one more thing, the entrance! Can't get into or out of town without it!"

We went over to a little archway with Oreace in yellow fancy handwriting on the front of it, where a crowd of pokemon seemed to have gathered.

"Huh? Why are there so many people here?" I asked.

"Dunno." Hoopa said as he rubbed his stomach. "Ooh...maybe something's going on..."

We walked (well, I walked, Hoopa hovered) over to the crowd, and I looked at a Growlithe. "Hey, what's going on?"

"It looks like there's a bit of trouble." The dog Pokemon said.

"What does that mean?" I wondered before pushing my way through the crowd, to see what was happening.

On the dirt path surrounded by grass up to the entrance, was an Audino wearing a white button-up uniform, a Skitty hugging its tail and rolling around, and a Sandile wearing a black neckerchief with white triangles forming teeth on them.

"For the last time, let us pass!" The Audino said.

"Sorry there, my fine female friends." The Sandile grinned. "But I jus' can't be havin' ya doing that. See, you got a lotta moola on your person there. Why don't you just be a doll and hand it on over to Da Croc, 'kay?"

"I am not giving you this money!" The audino defended herself.

"Yeah!" The Skitty agreed as she jumped up and down, I think she was trying to look intimidating. "Aria got it fair and square and square and fair, meanie!"

"Why you broads gotta make it tough on Da Croc?" Da Croc sighed. "Trust me, you don't pay up, this is gonna get ugly, I'm more bite than bark y'know."

"Are you sure?" The Skitty asked innocently.

"Whatchoo say, girl!?" Da Croc growled.

"This could turn ugly..." I mumbled. "Hey, Hoopa, can you do something about this?...Hoopa?" I turned to the Legendary, only to find him lying on the ground, writhing in pain. "Hoopa! Are you okay?"

"N-No..." He groaned. "M...My stomach is sore!"

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"Too...many...donuts...blorgh..." He looked like he was about to be sick.

"Enough talkin'!" Da Croc said as he took several menacing steps forward. "If your not gonna hand it over, I'll take it! Kapeesh!?"

"Back off!" Aria rebuffed, though Da Croc continued to advance.

'Crap! This looks bad!' The pokemon watching were basic stages who didn't look like they knew how to fight, and I couldn't see any battle worthy pokemon in the vicinity...'Oh shit!' Without thinking, I ran out onto the path and inbetween the Sandile and Audino. "Hey! Back off!"

"Wha-!? Who the hell are you, buster?" The Sandile snarled.

"I'm Elin Ray!...Pawniard!" I stated awkwardly, before looking over my shoulder at the pair. "You two get out of here!"

"Huh?" Aria stated.

"Wow! Thank you! That's really nice!" The Skitty said before she tugged Aria along to Oreace.

"Oi! I'm not done with you two yet!" Da Croc tried to give chase, but I again blocked his path. "Your starting to tug my tail ya punk! I'm gonna beatcha into my home turf; the ground!"

"Come on, then!" I challenged.

"Fine then! Take this, wise guy!" He suddenly jumped forward, mouth filled with sharp teeth wide open.

And that's when the idiocy of my actions sunk in. In other words; I'd fucked up.

"Ah!" I jumped out of the way of the Bite, then another. "Hey! Stop for a second! Aah!" I took off in a panic.

"Come back here, you coward!" Da Croc roared as he chased after me, using Bite after Bite to try and hit me.

'Judt what did I think I could do here!?' I yelled at myself in my head whilst running around. 'How can I beat this guy!?'

"Graaaah!" Da Croc roared. "You don't just pick a fight then scamper you wuss! Let's see how you like this!" He suddenly jumped into the air then burrowed snout first into the ground.

'He's using Dig!' I realised. 'And I'm part Steel-Type! If this hits, its seriously gonna hurt!' I scanned over the area, trying to determine where he would pop up.

Suddenly there was a sharp pain in my midsection as the Sandile erupted from the ground underneath my feet and hit me inbetween my chest blades. My eyes squeezed shut to endure the sudden pain as I felt myself fly through the air then crash onto my back.

"Gack!" I coughed as I struggled to my blades and knees. "That hurt..."

"Elin!" I looked up to see a still queasy Hoopa. "C'mon...ugh...don't you have any moves? Oh Arceus, I'm gonna..."

"Moves?" Of course! I was a Pawniard! A pokemon! Made to fight! "How do I use moves?"

"Bro, they come-HIC!-normally...g-go get your fighting instinct on..." He flopped to the ground with a sickly girgle.

I groaned before I stood back up and turned to face Da Croc. "So, you lookin' for more pain, tough guy?"

"Hah!" I ran forward and raised a blade. "Do something! Anything!" And yet nothing did.

"What? You tryin' to do somfing like THIS!?" Suddenly he whipped his tail and a sandstorm surrounded me!

"Ack! Argh!" I shielded myself as I was battered with stones and sharp sand.

"How you likin' my Sand Tomb?" Croc called over the buffeting wind. "It's gonna slice you into scrap in a snap!"

"This is bad..." I hissed. "If I don't get out of here..." I covered my face as much as possible before running forward and jumping, breaking through the sand and collapsing to the ground.

"Well, well, well, look what the Delcatty dragged outta the Sand Tomb." My whole body stung as I tried to stand up. "Why don'tcha just take a little 'ol mud nap!" I gasped in pain as a small stream of mud hit me in the chest with surprising force, sending me tumbling back face down into the dirt.

"Elin...bleurgh..." I heard Hoopa speak weakly.

"Let dis be a lesso not ta poke your nose in other Pokemon's business." Da Croc sneered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some broads to get some money off of."

"Ack..." Just trying to move hurt as I lay on the ground. "I...can't just...let him walk away..." Shit! This stupid Sandile just beat the crap out of me, and now I'm beaten to the ground like some stupid weakling! It...really pissed me off!

It felt as if my body had suddenly gone into auto-pilot. Eyes sharpened, strength increased, a sense of battle coursed through me as I got to my feet.

"Hey!" Da Croc turned to me. "I'm not done yet!"

"What? You still standin'?" Da Croc chuckled. "Man, this outta be good...say...whats with dat look in your eyes?"

Reacting on instinct, I dashed forward and held my right blade out,, slashing him across the side with it.

"Gah!" He gasped in pain, before quickly recovering. "You little-! Catching me off guard! But you think a little Scratch is gonna hurt me!? Huh!?" He jumped at me jaws wide for a Bite attack.

I crossed my arms in front of myself as my blades glowed green, before I dashed underneath him and uppercutted him in the stomach.

'1...'

"Ahhhh!" He gasped as he was tossed into the air, but I didn't give him time to recover as I junped up and slashed him again.

'2...'

"Agh! Ah..." As he fell down, I landed next to him and slashed again.

'3...'

"Stop that you-Aghagh!" He gasped as I slashed him across the face.

'4...'

"You...You..." He staggered around, and I crossed my blades over my chest before dashing at him.

'5!'

I spun my whole body around, and gave him a corkscrew slash, posing with my left blade at 6 o' clock and my right blade at 10 o' clock as the green glow left my blades, and Da Croc collapsed, his eyes turning into swirls.

The battle instinct faded, and my fatigue caught up with me as I started breathing heavily. 'W-Wow...Did I just do all that?'

"Elin!" Suddenly Rotom, Kiera, Mr. Shuck, Minnie and a still sick Hoopa came out towards me.

"Hey..." I waved weakly.

"That was AWESOME!" Kiera marvelled. "You totally beat that guy! What a cool Fury Cutter!"

"We heard the commotion and came out to check on you!" Mr. Shuck said.

Rotom pulled out some sort of red device that looked like a touchpad with a Poke-Ball on the front of it, he tapped the button and it expanded out into a holographic screen. "Hmm...it seems you took some heavy damage, but nonetheless, you won! Congratulations!"

"Th-Thanks..." I breathed heavily.

"Gah!" We all turned to Da Croc as he struggled to his feet. "I can't believe I got beat by a pipsqueake like you!"

"You have lost, so kindly leave." Mr. Shuck half-demanded.

Da Croc snarled. "Mark my words, Elin Ray! You'll pay for this, kapeesh!?" He then burrowed underground and fled.

"What a jerk." Kiera stated.

"Y-Yeah..." I gasped as I stumbled forward, though Minnie caught me.

"C'mon, let's get you healed up." She said. "Besides, those two you saved want to thank you!"

"Okay..." I used the last of my strength to agree before they carried me back into town.

 **Aaaaaand this makes Chapter 3! Did you guys enjoy the first fight between Elin and Da Croc? Trust me, we'll be seeing this snappy Sandile again!**

 **Now, I said that I would reveal my chosen 10 this chapter...but I'm a soft sap and I've decided to let others have a bit more time to submit an OC before deciding. However, to those of you who have submitted, I will say that if you truly put in the time and effort to create your OC, you've got an excellent chance. This coming from the guy who spends two hours making each of his OC's, just to let you know.**

 **In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading! And nest chapter, the main plot shall be revealed! See you then!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Quest Begins!

I felt myself be put into a chair. Everything was blurred, voices mixed together over the throbbing in my head.

"Drink this, Elin." I heard a voice say as I felt a liquid flow into my mouth. It tasted pleasantly sweet before I swallowed, and instantly my blurred vision focused, and the throbbing in my head faded away.

My eyes met with two crystal clear blue ones. "Ah, you seem to be better already." She stepped back, revealing herself to be a Glaceon, except she was Shiny.

"Ugh..." I rubbed my head, er, helmet. "I...actually feel a lot better, thank you."

She smiled warmly. "It's alright, a bowl of Oran Soup heals most injuries." She nudged the bowl towards me and I picked it up, draining the rest of it.

"Elin, this is Grace." Mr. Shuck said. "She's our deliverer from the Cafe, she was out when you arrived."

"Oh, uh, hello, Grace." I waved.

"It's nice to meet you after I've heard so much about you, Elin." She said.

"That was very brave of you, Elin." Kiera said as she floated in front of me.

"That reminds me!" I jumped as Rotom shot into my view. "There are two people here wishing to thank you! Come on now!" He pulled me up out of the chair, pushed me past a queasy Hoopa, and in front of the Audino and Skitty from earlier.

"Thank you again for helping us." The Audino nodded. "My name is Aria, and this is Sarah."

"Hiiiiiii!" The Skitty waved. "Your a hero!"

I blushed as I rubbed the back of my head. "I-It was nothing really."

"Well, you still helped us out, so I want to give you something in return." Aria said. "If it's alright, would you like to come with me?"

I turned to the others. "Is that okay?"

"Of course." Mr. Shuck agreed.

"Just come back safely this time." Grace said.

Aria led me and Sarah out of the Inn and into East Oreace, in front of the Housing Management building, where she breathed in and exhaled deeply. "Home sweet home."

"Wait, you live here?" I asked.

She laughed. "No, no, I run it!"

The two Timburr stood to attention and saluted. "Welcome back, Boss!" They said.

"Please don't call me Boss." Aria deadpanned.

"Yes, Boss!" She sighed at their reply before we walked in.

The place was very spacious, with lots of hand crafted wooden furniture and a soft red rug under our feet with a chandelier above us as Timburr's and Gurdurr's rushed about everywhere. Overall, it was a very formal yet comforting feeling. That is if it wasn't for the Conkelldurr wearing a formal suit sitting behind the desk in front of us.

"Hurry up you little hatchlings!" He bellowed. "I'm not seeing work being done! PICK UP THE PACE!"

"Ahem, Conkelldurr?" Aria said as we walked up to the desk.

He turned our attention towards us and gasped. "Miss Aria!" He got up out of his seat and bowed. "I do deeply apologise for my outburst, miss. It appears that some are...procrastinating."

"That's quiet alright." Aria said as she took the seat in his place. "How have sales been since I was gone?"

"We have gained a profit of 8,000, miss." Conkelldurr replied.

"That's excellent work." Aria smiled.

"Thank you, miss." Conkelldurr bowed before walking over to a table and picking up a tea set. "Tea?"

"Oh, yes please." Aria agreed as Conkelldurr brought the tray over and placed a cup in front of her. "These are my new friends, Elin and Sarah."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." Conkelldurr bowed as he offered us a cup each.

"Yay! Thanks!" Sarah cheered as we both took a cup.

"Now then, Elin." Aria said. "As reward for your assistance, I'd like to offer you a little piece of property."

"What? Like, a house?" I asked.

"Yes, precisely." She nodded. "Admittedly its one I've been trying to..."

"Get rid off?" I helped.

"YYYYYYes. For a while now." She admitted. "I know that seems ungrateful of me, but as you know, I am a business Pokemon. Plus, I'll be sure to give you a discount on all the things we sell that helps spruce up the place, to help you make it feel more homey."

"Wow, that's really nice of you, thank you!" I smiled.

"My pleasure." She walked over to a cupboard and took out a simple gold key. "It's actually at the end of East Oreace, so I'll show you there. Conkelldurr, will you watch things until I return?"

"Of course, miss." He said.

"Great!" She beamed. "Come along, then." We followed Aria out of the building as Conkelldurr resumed shouting at the workers.

We walked to the end of the street, where we came across a small brown wooden flat with a dull red shingled roof and some missing bricks. "Believe me when I say its not life threatening." Aria quickly said before she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

...At least you could live in it. Yes, there was no wallpaper, a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, a rickety looking wooden table and chair, and a half broken bed with dirty green sheets. Along with a distinct Trubbish smell in the air.

"So, this is...mine?" I asked.

"Yep...sorry." She said.

"This is...awesome!" I cheered. "I own property!"

"So cooooooool!" Sarah cheered as she ran around excitedly.

"Yooooooo!" Hoopa burst through the door. "I'm okay again! So this is your house, Elin? Wooooooooo!" He began zipping around the room.

"Conkelldurr pointed us in the right direction." Kiera said as she also entered.

"What marvellous potential!" Rotom giggled as he looked around. "Elin! May I perhaps use your house for some test experiments sometime? I've recently developed my firework disco ball!"

"No, thanks." I stated nervously.

"Oh well!" He shrugged it off. "By the way, Elin. I've remembered that there is one last place I didn't show you, and it's my favourite!" He pushed me out the door hurriedly. "Hurry, hurry, hurry! i'm sure they'll take good care of the place in the meantime."

"I'll make sure of it!" Aria added as I was pushed out of her line of sight.

Before I knew it me and Rotom were back in central Oreace. "There we go. Now, time to show you the reason why my base of operations is Oreace." He pushed me forward. "North Oreace has only one thing in it, but its the centerpiece of this fair city." He directed my gaze upwards at the now towering building. "The Oreace Clock Tower!"

"It's kinda hard not to notice it." I said. "So, why are you so interested in it, Rotom?"

"I'm glad you asked!" He floated over to the bottom of the clock tower, where a blue wooden door led inside.

"Is it okay to just go inside?" I sceptically asked.

"It's perfectly fine!" Rotom waved it off. "Besides, not many people come in here."

As I entered the clock tower, I looked up at the winding staircase leading to the top, twisting around the towers constantly turning gears of gold, silver and bronze. "This way!" He zapped up to the top.

"Hey! No fair! I can't fly!" I called before starting my run up the stairs, eventually making it to the top. "So what's up here...that...woah..."

The back of the clock face was gigantic in my face, looking out across the whole of Oreace and beyond, whilst what looked like a smaller clock with the hour hand broken off was stuck on the center, though that was not what made me gasp. The walls surrounding the top of the clock tower were engraved with ancient drawings, completely surrounding me.

"What is all this?" I thought aloud.

"Elin, these are murals, telling of a great battle that took place thousands of years ago, and what led to the birth of Oreace." Rotom said as he adjusted his glasses.

"A battle?" I echoed.

"Indeed. Here, allow me to show you." He led me to the left wall, where two giants looked like they were fighting. "This depicts the battle at its most powerful point."

"That one looks like Arceus." I said, pointing at the one on the right.

"Your correct, Elin." Rotom nodded.

I looked at the other thing, which...I couldn't really describe. It just looked like a malicious mass of shadows formed into some kind of monster. "What's this one?"

Rotom shook his head. "Honestly, nobody knows. By reading some texts I managed to find, apparently this monster appeared and aimed to destroy the world, origins and reasons unknown. Sensing the threat, Arceus appeared and battled the monster, the battleground being where Oreace now stands."

He led me over to the wall opposite the back of the clock face, which depicted the shadow vanishing in front of Arceus. "Using all of his power, Arceus managed to defeat the monster, and save the world."

On the right wall was a depiction of Oreace, with the clock tower shining brightly. "To celebrate the victory, Arceus erected this great clock tower, and eventually, Oreace was built around it. It's name deriving from both origin and peace. And I've been researching the story ever since I found out about it!"

He began flashing around the room again as I studied the picture more closely. "This all really happened?"

"Some regard it as rumours." Rotom said. "But, there are multiple texts on the subject of it, and I choose to have an open mind."

Carefully, I reached out my right blade and rested it against the picture. Suddenly, the mural glowed brightly! I jumpeds away in shock as the other two walls also brightened.

"My word! What is happening!?" Rotom gasped.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do anything! I just touched it! I swear!" I panicked.

The whole room felt like it was shaking, we backed away from the walls and prepared ourselves for the worst! But then, the shaking stopped, and something hit me in the face!

"Ouch!" I cried as I stumbled back from the hit. "Gah, that hurt!" I looked down to see that the thing that had hit me was the smaller clock previously stuck in the centre of the clock faces back. "What is this thing?" I picked it up, and the minute hand suddenly spun clockwise to 10.

"Dear Arceus! Elin, look at this." At Rotom's voice, I looked up at the clock face, to see that a diamond shaped indentation had appeared above each number on the clock face.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"I'm not sure..." Rotom pondered. "Elin, you head back to the Lab, I'm going to study this for a minute."

"Okay." I nodded as I walked down the staircase, looking at the clock all the way down.

 _Quest Life_

As soon as I opened the Lab door, Hoopa appeared right in my face, literally inches away from it. "Elin! Come on! I gotta show you something!" Am I a ragdoll? Because I seem to be getting pushed and pulled around a lot.

"Hiya, Elin!" Sarah waved.

"Oh, hey Sarah. What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Look through my hoop." Hoopa interrupted me as he placed his hoop in my line of vision, and my eyes widened at what I saw.

Instead of looking at a Skitty, I was seeing a girl that had pink dyed hair in two pigtails and a large pink bow in her hair, with green eyes, wearing an orange shirt with a pink skirt.

"Is this...?" I started.

"My hoops show the truth." Hoopa said as he tossed his ring up and down. "So my hoop says that she's just like you! A human brought over to our world!"

"Is that true, Sarah?" I asked.

"Yep!" She nodded excitedly. "I saw Rotom's message, then there was a big flash of light, and then I was a Skitty in the middle of the road where Aria found me!"

"And...that doesn't bother you?" I added.

"Nope!" She stated innocently. "Besides, this is fun! Hey! What's that!?" She began chasing her own tail in circles.

"Hey, where's Professor Doctor Rotom?" Kiera asked.

"He stayed at the Clock Tower after something...came up." I told them.

"Something has come up!" Guess which Pokemon just burst through the door holding some kind of scanner in his electric hand. "I was studying the indentations created from the unnatural event, and discovered incredibly high energy residue."

Hoopa gave him a half lidded look. "Woah, Doc, too many words."

Rotom lifted his glasses up so he could also give a half-lidded look. "Lot of power was there, but now it isn't."

"Gotcha." Hoopa gave him a thumbs up.

"I believe I remember reading something like this once..." He zipped over to his bookshelf and took out a book, quickly flipping through it. "Ah, yes! It says that at one point, there were 12 Key Shards resting inside the Clock Tower...but as we saw, Elin, they are no longer there."

"Why would that be?" I asked.

"I'm not sure..." He mumbled, before looking at me. "Hm? What is that you have there, Elin?"

"Oh, this?" I held up the small clock. "It hit me in the head up in the clock tower." I looked at it and raised a non-existent eyebrow. "That's weird...it was pointing at 10 earlier, now its pointing at 1."

"Hmm..." Hoopa looked at the clock. "...Elin, can you walk around the room, please?"

"Um...okay." I paced around the room, noticing that as I moved, the hand on the clock face always pointed in the same direction.

"It's not a clock! It's a compass!" Kiera exclaimed. "A Clock Compass!"

"A mysteryyyyyy!" Sarah announced.

"This...Clock Compass, as you put it, Kiera, could be important..." Rotom pondered. "This came from the same clock face as the Key Shards, they could be linked."

"Why are these Key Shards so important?" I questioned.

Rotom brought over the book and lay it down on the table, showing a picture of the same shadowy monster being surrounded by the shards. "Apparently, Arceus created the shards as replicates of his plates, in order to seal away the majority of the monsters power so that it could be defeated."

"Doc, what do you mean?" Hoopa asked.

"The Key Shards contain a large amount of that monsters power." He simplified it. "I believe that the revealing of the indentations signifies that the Key Shards have awakened their power. If they came into contact with other Pokemon, it could have horrible effects."

"So, what's the solution?" Keira asked.

"is it not obvious?" Rotom closed the book. "The Key Shards must be returned to their rightful place in the Oreace Clock Tower, away from Pokemon hands. And if my hunch is correct..." He tapped my Clock Compass. "This leads directly to where they are."

"Okay! I've got it!" Hoopa snatched the Clock Compass out of my blade. "I'll find the Key Shards and bring them back no problem!" He shot towards the door, but completely missed it and slammed face first into the wall.

"...Yes..." Rotom slowly took the Clock Compass out of Hoopa's hand. "No offence, Hoopa, but I don't really trust you."

"What about you, Professor Doctor? I mean, you can fly." Kiera suggsted.

"Oh...Oh no, Kiera, not me." He suddenly pulled a cane and beard out of nowhere and appeared a lot more frail. "An old Pokemon like me could never survive out there...ohhhhh..."

"Really convincing." Me and Kiera said with half-lidded eyes.

"In any case!" He threw his props away. "Do not worry, I am sure I'll be able to find a few Questers about town."

I then got another stupid idea. I think these might be coming from the Pawniard side of my brain, I'm pretty sure I have that now. "I'll do it."

"What?" Everyone said.

"I'll do it." I nodded, more for myself then anything. "I'll go and find the Key Shards."

"Elin, this is a major task." Rotom reasoned. "No offence, but this is incredibly dangerous."

"I know, but for some reason I'm feeling really reckless right now." I stated honestly.

"Still, I can't let you go alone." Rotom continued.

"I'll go with him!" Sarah volunteered. "I'm ready for adventure! Plus, I can fight too!"

"I can go too!" Kiera perked up. "You know I'm a tough customer too, Professor Doctor!"

Rotom looked at the three of us, then sighed. "Hatchlings these days...very well, I'll leave this to you three."

"Hooray!" The three of us cheered.

"HOWEVER!" We all froze. "Elin and Sarah, I must teach you about the rules of our world, if you wouldn't mind a little lesson."

"I don't mind!" "Sure." We agreed.

"Excellent!" He suddenly zipped away, and came back as Frost Rotom. "The most important thing you must know, there are three types of Pokemon in our world."

His left door opened, showing Oreace with multiple Pokemon walking in it. "Townies are Pokemon that only reside in towns, and have lifestyles in that town."

His right door opened up, showing a picture of a Palpitoad, Mankey and Shiftry wearing battle armour. "Questers are Pokemon that travel outside of town, and make a living by helping others and finding treasure out in the field."

His top door opened up, revealing a Zubat, Dusclops and Malamar with a dark aura around them. "And Rogues are Pokemon that live outside of towns, and attack Questers whenever possible."

He closed his top and left doors. "Obviously, you are aiming to be Questers. But for that, your gonna need some more help." He popped out of the fridge. "Elin, you remember those two shops in the square, yes? It's time we paid a visit to them!"

He led us over to the shop with the two berries above it. "This is the Item Shop!" Rotom said as we walked in. The store was filled with berries, gems, and various items from the games such as the King's Rock and Toxic Orb. "Items are very important for Questers." We walked up to the counter, where a Simisage wearing gardening gloves stood behind the counter.

"Hey there!" He greeted us. "You folks looking for some items?"

"Yes, my friends here are beginner Questers looking for some basic necessities." Rotom said.

"Great! Always nice to meet some new Questers! Good for business!" The Simisage grinned. "Name's Sagen. Have you met my brother yet? Runs the shop next door."

"Uh, not yet." I said.

"Hey, Sagen!" Sarah pointed to a small blue gem. "What's this thing?"

"Ah!" Sagen jumped over to her. "That, my little lady, is a Small HP Gem. Just break it near you, and small injuries are recovered just like that!" He snapped his fingers. "Trust me, works better then an Oran Berry."

'So these gems are substitutes for Potions and Antidotes and stuff.' I thought as I examined a shelf of them.

"I'll take 5 Small HP Gems, please." Rotom requested.

"Certainly!" Sagen said as he bounded back to the counter. "I'm planning on topping up on normal HP Gems soon, along with some new berries." He put five in a bag and gave it to Rotom. "Have a good day!"

"Thank you!" All of us waved as we walked out.

"He was nice!" Sarah beamed.

"Now here!" Rotom gestured to the shop next to it, with the purple cape and gold ring. "This shop is ESSENTIAL for any Quester!" He threw the door open overdramatically. "The Gear Shop!"

I looked around as we walked in, and the whole place was full of clothing and accessories! Dresses, gloves, shoes, hockey masks, capes, everything!

"Gear, my dear friends, is what every Quester should have!" Rotom exclaimed. "Gear can give you multiple effects! It can increase your speed, resistance against Types, even make you learn a new move! My glasses are Gear y'know."

"Really? What do they do?" I asked.

"They make me look more intelligent!" I facebladed.

"You seem very well versed in Gear, my man." We turned to the counter to see a Simisear wearing sunglasses, golden rings on his fingers, earrings, a top hat, and a bow tie. "The name's Searen, owner of all this fine, fine, Gear. I see you've already been to my little bro's shop."

"Yes, my friends here are looking for some Gear." Rotom gestured to us.

"Beginner Questers, huh?" Searen chuckled. "Well, since your new, I can't offer you much. See, certain Gears have a level of strength you need to have. If you don't got it, their effects are made worthless. But I'll see what I can find."

I looked around as he was searching, noticing all the 'human' stuff hanging up. 'Where did all of this stuff come from? Did the Pokemon here make it? Do they have the same ideas as us?'

"Here we go!" We turned back to Searen as he dumped some stuff on the table. "Pick whatever you like."

I looked amongst the items, seeing a bead necklace, a pumpkin mask, a leather belt and...

"What's this?" I picked up a long crimson red scarf with a black star on each end.

"That, my good friend, is a Swift Scarf." Searen said. "It increases reflexes and evasiveness."

"Then this, please." I said as Rotom pulled a bag of money out of literally nowhere.

"Excellent choice! That's 700 Pokedollars then." Rotom paid the money and I gently picked up the scarf and wrapped it around my neck, the two ends flailing out behind me. I must admit, I felt pretty badass.

Sarah, however, looked over the items with a pouty face. "I'm sorry, but have you got anything else?"

"Hmmm..." Searen looked at her thoughtfully. "Little miss, do you have the ability Cute Charm?"

"Cute Charm?" She echoed.

"Hold on, I'll check." Rotom pulled out the red touchpad he used on me earlier and expanded it into the holographic screen. I looked over his shoulder to see an info screen of Sarah, with a picture of her, a green HP gauge, an empty Gear and Item list, a movelist (Doubleslap and Assist) and her Ability; Cute Charm. "Yes, you do!"

"Hey, Rotom, what is this thing?" I asked.

"This is a personal favourite invention of mine, the PokePad, it gives you info on Pokemon you point it at." He said.

"...And...where did you get it from?"

"Hammerspace."

"...Um...okay?...How?"

"Here you are, young lady." Searen interrupted us as he held up a pink bow with a red gem in the center. "This is the Cute Bow, it increases the chance of Cute Charm working."

Sarah cried happily as she placed it on her head. "I love it! Thank you, sir!"

"No problem, kid. Uh, 500 Pokedollars, sir." Rotom payed the money. "Thank you."

"What about you, Kiera?" I asked.

"I've already got one!" She jingled herself, revealing a pink butterfly key. "My Fairy Key increases the power of all my Fairy-Type attacks."

"Thank you!" We waved as we walked out of the shop.

"Seriously though, what's with the Hammerspace?" I immediately pressed Rotom.

"Every Pokemon has a Hammerspace to keep items in."...That did not help. "You should have one as well, Elin."

"...How...How does it work?" Wouldn't you ask the same question?

"You just will it." He replied.

"Your supposed to be a Professor Doctor! Be more precise!" I said.

"It's a normal fact." He reasoned.

"How!?"

"Oh! Elin, Sarah, Kiera and Rotom." We all turned to the voice to see a familiar Glaceon.

"Hey, Grace." We greeted her.

"I like your new Gear." She complimented us.

"Thanks." Me and Sarah smiled.

"Have you just come back from the Cafe?" Kiera asked.

"Actually, Pouren gave me a week off." Glaceon said.

"That's great!" Kiera smiled (I think) "You work a lot, Grace, you should get some time off."

"Ah yes, the cafe." Rotom said. "You remember I spoke of positive effects from the food they cook there? Well this includes increasing their effects, such as the Oran Soup you drank earlier, or adding extra effects such as increasing stats, so you always benefit from finding foods in the field."

"This is a lot to take in." I admitted.

Grace tilted her head. "Wait, are you Questers now?"

"Pretty much." I nodded.

"Oh, that's right! Your a Quester, aren't you, Grace?" Kiera said.

The Shiny nodded. "Yes, I travelled to Oreace from Iriora."

"Grace! Could you give us some pointers?" Skitty asked excitedly.

She smiled. "Unfortunately, I don't think you can give many pointers to a Quester out in the field apart from what you already have."

"Awwww..." Sarah pouted.

"I have told you everything you need to know." Rotom said as he handed me the bag of Small HP Gems. "Oh, except, to keep everything you have in your Hammerspace. Just will it, Elin."

I sceptically looked at the bag, and held it behind my back, willing for it to go into my...'Hammerspace'. When I pulled my blade back, the bag was gone. "...Okay, that is pretty awesome."

We walked to the entrance of Oreace, accomponied by Rotom, Grace and Hoopa. When we passed the inn, Mr. Shuck and Minnie also came out to wish us luck.

"One more thing." Rotom said. "It is possible you meet more humans turned Pokemon whilst your travelling. If that is the case, please direct them back to Oreace. And to help you distinguish them..." He turned to the Legendary. "Hoopa."

"Huh?" He replied.

"Your ring is able to see the Pokemon as humans." Rotom explained.

"Give up one of my hoops!?" A horrified Hoopa howled. "But they're what make me Hoopa! Without my hoops I'm just...A!"

"We promise we'll take extremely good care of it." I assured him.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Sarah begged.

"Hoopa grumbled as he handed me one of his rings. "Take good care of it, got it?"

"Got it." I said as I took his ring...and put it in my 'Hammerspace'.

"Also, take this." He gave me the PokePad in its shrunken form. "You'll need it more then me."

"Thank you, Rotom." Still wanna know about this Hammerspace...

"I never expressed how grateful I am that your all willing to do this...thank you again." Rotom said.

"If you get injured, come straight back!" Minnie told us.

"There will always be room for you." Mr. Shuck nodded.

"Take good care of yourselves." Grace nodded.

"See you soon, guys!" "Bye-byyyyyyyyyye!" We waved as we set off down the path, following where the Clock Compass was pointing.

'Boy...This escalated quickly.' I thought.

 _Quest Life_

Elsewhere, a room was filled with darkness, as a figure sat on a blood red and dark purple throne. He was cautious, for he had just sensed a change in the world. A change he had been waiting for a long time...

"InCo." He called.

A small brown cloak floated over to him, the figure inside being completely hidden save for two glowing yellow circles for eyes. "Yes, my lord?" He said in a squeaky voice.

"The gears of fate have begun to spin." The throned figure said in a thinking tone. "The moment we are waiting for has come...begin your work immediately."

"At once, my lord." InCo bowed, before hovering off.

The figure leaned back in his throne. "And so it begins..." A single blue eye flashed in the darkness...

 **Finally a new chapter is done! Sorry for the wait, guys, I've just been waiting for other people to send in any more OC's**. **By the way, I'm sure readers of Split Worlds remember Grace, right?**

 **But now, I believe its time I revealed my chosen 10 OC's! I shall list their creators below so as not to spoil anything. NOTE: The order in which they are put in DOES NOT represent how good I think their OC's are; I like all of them equally (Make sure to scroll down one at a time for dramatic tension):**

 **snowwolf12132**

 **m-meistiNator**

 **The Restless Drifter**

 **meteorce**

 **NRMania**

 **Hauchen**

 **BloodStarGeneral**

 **Kamico**

 **FourthWallBreaker**

 **Jeffrey Seven**

 **Congratulations to these 10! I'll come back to you guys a bit later.**

 **I would also like to thank DarkKitsuneFluffy, The Pokemon Warrior, Klingkan, ebony umbreon, ultima-owner, movienut96, EnvoyofTime, nicranger, W. R. Winters, cloudy5 and** **SyraxAxoJaxco for putting in the time and effort to create their OC's. They are great characters and I am deeply sorry that I have rejected them. I hope that these OC's will be part of another, high quality fanfiction someday.**

 **For everybody else who submitted, or, anybody interested in this, there is a reason I did not reply to you with ways of improvement. I wanted to see how initial submissions ended up, to see if you actually cared about your OC's. This is not a criticism in any way, but if your OC is inadequate, then I, as a writer, cannot develop them, and they will most likely be sidelined, which I am sure the creator would not want.**

 **NONE of the submitted OC's were bad, they just lacked detail. And without detail, I cannot create a character that interacts with the world I create. So, I decided to leave it until this moment, to tell you how to improve your OC's:**

 **One sentence for personality or appearance is in no way showing you have put further thought into your OC, you have simply given me an outline of their character. What are their thoughts? Speech traits? Reactions to people? Reactions to conversations? And what is their eye colour? Hair style? Shade of clothing colour? All things must be considered.**

 **Try to go above and beyond. One of my submitters included a four paragrapg long History! That is dedication and showing their burning absolute determination to give me an OC that I can work with.**

 **If you need more help, check out DJTiki's forum: The Starfields, and look under OC's, you can discuss with major OC writers how to create a successful OC and improve your outlook on them. Plus, I'm on there as well.**

 **This is by no means a criticism to any of you, and if you do feel that way, I apologise. I hope you can understand my reason for why I did this. Bearing all this in mind though, I am keeping the SYOC open, and everybody is free to resubmit. BUT, the standards are now incredibly high, so keep that in mind!**

 **Now then, back to our 10 winners. A lot of things have been revealed in this chapter, including Gears. If you cannot tell by now, this is a constantly developing story, with new stuff being revealed all the time. As such, YOU, as submitted OC creators, have the power to change or add things to your OC whenever you wish! (Plus, if you PMed your OC, that helps me not to lose your form in the mess that is my Inbox)**

 **So now, I'm adding a new category; Gears! A character can have up to 3 different gears at a time. You can decide what they are, what they do, and change them whenever you want! However, since we're just starting out, your Gears must have basic effects! Anybody sending in a Gear with overpowered effects will get a stern talking to. On the other hand, you are free to upgrade Gear after every two arcs or so.**

 **Lastly, I am planning to add a little Info Box to the top of each chapter, which possibly details areas, current stats, and ongoing battles at that point in a chapter. Let me give you an example by laying out Oreace:**

 **South Oreace: Entrance, Shuck's Inn (Mr. Shuck and Minnie), Storage, Dark Alleyway (?)**

 **Oreace Square: Gear Shop (Searen), Item Shop (Sagen)**

 **West Oreace: Cafe (Pouren), Task Hut, Airport**

 **East Oreace: Lab (Professor Doctor Rotom and Hoopa), Question Center, Housing Management (Aria and Conkelldurr), Elin's House (Grace)**

 **North Oreace: Oreace Clock Tower**

 **If you like or don't like this idea, say so in a review.**

 **And now, we are finally done. I'm sorry that took so long, but I wanted to address all issues building up to this moment. Thank you to all of you for your support, and remember, you still have a chance to get an OC in! So, until next time, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Perilous Petal Path!

 **Current Location: Petal Path**

 **Questers: Elin (Swift Scarf), Sarah (Cute Bow), Kiera (Fairy Key)**

After leaving Oreace, we turned left at the crossroads and continued following the Clock Compass, walking down a path with a rainbow of different flowers either side of us, filling the air with a mixed yet sweet smell.

"This seems simple enough." I said as we walked. "Isn't this an area where Rogues are supposed to be?"

"A Rogue Route, yeah." Kiera nodded. "Routes are basically anywhere that isn't a town. Thankfully, the one we're on now, Petal Path, is the least dangerous, many common Rogues just hang out here."

'Routes...its too good a reference to be true.' I thought.

Sarah was frolicking in the flowers as we walked, though at one point she came over to us. "Hey! Look what I found!"

"An Oran Berry?" I observed as she held it up.

"It's only natural that Berries would grow here, I mean the soil is just perfect." Kiera reasoned. "You should keep it as a held Item."

"Uh-huh!" Sarah nodded as she put it behind her ribbon.

"You can hold Items, too?" I just wanted to clarify this, rules could be a bit different.

"You can have up to 3 Gears at one time, but only 1 held Item." She explained. "Gems are too heavy to hold, so you can only use them when you can access your Hammerspace undistracted."

"Got it." I confirmed.

We continued along the flowery road until we came across a small wooden bridge over a river. "A bridge? Did Rogues build it?" I thought aloud.

"It was most likely Townies." Kiera said. "Some of the tougher ones like Conkelldurr go into Rogue Routes and build things that can make life for Questers a little easier. Or, those looking for a holiday or new job take a quick trip through them."

"Convenient for us, then." I said as we started to cross.

"Halt!" We all jumped as something burst out of the water into the sky above us.

"What is that!?" I gasped as it landed in front of us.

The thing revealed itself to be a Ferroseed as it spun around to face us. "The name's Fury! And you can't cross this bridge unless you hand over all your money and items!"

"So, what, your Ferroseed of the bridge?" I guessed.

"Oh, have you read The Three Billy Gogoat's Gruff, Elin?" Kiera asked.

"A...somewhat different version." I admitted.

"Hey! Are you ignoring me!?" Fury shouted. "C'mon! Pay up, or hop off!"

"Well, we don't actually have any money at the minute." I told him.

"Too bad, so sad, you can't cross!" He replied.

"Your just one Rogue." Kiera stated. "We can get past you."

"Oh, really?" The spikes around its body glowed green. "Pin Missile!" He suddenly started spinning around and launching green streams of energy!

"Woah!" We hit the deck as the attack exploded around us.

"How about THAT!?" Fury shouted.

"You jerk!" I jumped at him and slashed, but I simply bounced off of him. "Okay, I admit Scratch wasn't a good idea..."

"Let me try!" Kiera offered. "Fairy Wind!" She blew a strong wind of pink sparkles, but Fury was unfazed.

"Yeah, you guys know I'm part Steel, You can't do much like that." He mocked us. "My turn! Tackle!" He jumped straight at us!

And we sidestepped out of the way, making him land flat on his face. "Ack! No fair!"

"You may be part Steel..." I focused, making my blades glow green. "But your also part Grass."

"Oh crud." He realised.

"Fury Cutter!" I ran at him with both blades ready.

"Harden!" He glowed white as I slashed him, making me once again bounce off.

"Damnit!" I cursed. "Nothing's working!"

"I wanna try! I wanna try!" We all looked at Sarah as she skipped up to him.

"Uh, Sarah-" I tried to stop her.

"Hey there!" She greeted him. "Can we cross, please? Pretty please?"

"Wha-? No!" Fury repeated.

"Oh...then I'm sorry."

"Sorry for wha-"

"Doubleslap!" She suddenly swung her tail and smacked him across his body!

"Plebth!" Fury cried as he was sent spinning off the bridge and landed in the river with a splash, before floating off downstream.

There was a silence, until I broke it by saying: "Okay then."

"Owwwwwwww..." Sarah was holding her tail with a pained look on her face.

"Sarah? What's wrong?" I asked.

"My tail hurrrrrrrrts..." I looked at her tail to see a nasty red bruise on it.

"That must be from his Ability, Iron Barbs." Kiera thought aloud. "Sarah, eat the Oran Berry you found."

She nodded before taking the fruit from behind her bow and eating it, making the wound miraculously disappear. "Yay! I feel better now!"

"Now we're free to cross!" Kiera cheered. "Thanks, Sarah!"

"Your welcome!" She replied as we continued on our way.

As we walked along Kiera spoke up. "That encounter actually made me think...we ARE gonna need some money before we hit the next town, if we want to buy new Gear or items."

"Sounds fair." I agreed. "How do we get money?"

"Well, you can find it in treasure chests, that is if Rogues haven't looted it already." Kiera suggested. "Or, you can defeat a Rogue. When they're defeated, their Hammerspace spills out all their coins and stuff. I think I remember the Professor Doctor saying it's because being unconscious makes you lose focus or something..."

...I have chosen to just go along with everything now.

As we walked up a hill, Sarah ran to the top and began jumping up and down excitedly. "Guys! Guys! There's a town! I can see a town!"

We joined her at the top and looked down to indeed see a small village with colourful rooftops. "Guess we'll go there then." I nodded.

"Hey. Look over there." I looked over to where Kiera was nodding and saw a Meowth and Purrloin, pulling a wooden cage with wheels via a rope, with what looked like a black ball of fuzz inside of it.

"Alright, alright, let's stop for a second." I heard the Meowth groan as the two stopped pulling. "Sheesh! Didn't think this'd take so long..."

"We've only been going for about five minutes." The Purrloin pointed out.

"But my back's acting up..." He was acting a bit overdramatic. "I think it just needs a good...Scratch! Huh? Huh?"...Did...Did he just make a pun?

The Purrloin looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "No, Meob. Just no."

Meob fell to his knees with a cloud of depression hanging over him. "Your no fun, Purrloe."

Purrloe sat down. "So, remind me, why are we going to Oreace of all places with this guy?"

Meob instantly perked up. "Well, I heard that the Don is there, and he's got ties to ALL the underworld trades. I figured we could sell off his fur for cash. Lovely...shiny...coins..." His eyes turned sparkly for a second before returning to normal. "Pokemon fur makes some fine Gear from what I hear."

Purrloe raised an eyebrow. "THE Don? Really?"

"Uh-huh." Meob nodded. "Trust me, we'll do great!"

Purrloe smiled. "Sounds good."

"Those are more Rogues alright." Kiera nodded.

"Poor prisoner!" Sarah exclaimed. "We have to save them!"

"Who is this 'Don' they're talking about?" I asked.

Kiera shook herself. "No clue, he must be a bad Pokemon though to have underworld dealings-"

"I'll save you!" We both watched as Sarah jumped forward, only to end up rolling down the cliff right in front of the other two cat pokemon.

"...Hey, you know Skitty's can't learn Rollout, right? Hahahahahaha!" Meob burst out laughing at his own joke.

Seeing no other alternative, we also jumped down. "Stop right there, evildoers!" I declared.

"Seriously?" Kiera asked.

"It sounded cooler in my head." I whispered.

The two Rogues jumped up. "This is troublesome..." Purrloe mumbled.

"There's only one solution; fight time!" Meob declared as claws extended out of his paws.

I readied my blades as me and Meob clashed with a Scratch each. "Take this! Fury Swipes!" He began slashing wildly at me.

"Fury Cutter!" I did the exact same thing, the both of us parrying and blocking each others attacks.

"Tackle!" Kiera charged towards Purrloe.

"Night Shade!" She unleashed a wave of purple shockwaves that pushed Kiera back.

"Hi!" Sarah said as she was in front of the cage. "We're here to rescue you!"

"Huh? Really!?" The black ball of fuzz jumped up, revealing itself to be a Poochyena with gauged ears. "Thanks! It's really tight and cramped inside this cage! I'm Luke! Who are you?"

"My name's Sarah!" She introduced herself.

"Don't have a casual conversation!" I shouted before returning to fighting.

"Oh! Right, right! Do you know where the key is?" Sarah asked.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...nope! Sorry!" He replied.

"Alright, this is getting old!" Meob declared. "It's time for you to pay! Pay Day!" The coin on his head glowed before firing off a stream of gold coins.

"No more puns!" I cried as I defended myself from the coins.

"Bite!" Purrloe jumped towards Kiera, mouth agape and fangs at the ready.

"Fairy Wind!" At the last second she was blasted back by Kiera's attack, sending her crashing into the ground.

"That's enough!" I shrugged off the coins and charged at him, when I felt a faint dark aura surround me, and instinct kicked in. "Faint Attack!" I swerved around behind him and elbowed him in the back.

"Gaaaaaarrrrggghhhh..." He cried as he was flung face first into the ground, both of them having swirled eyes.

"Victory!" We cheered, when coins started appearing!

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Like I said, Rogues drop their money and stuff when defeated." Kiera said. "Hey! I found the key!" So as I picked up the coins to go into my Hammerspace, Kiera happily added the key to herself and unlocked the door.

"Whew! Thanks you guys!" Luke smiled as he jumped out, tail wagging happily behind him. "You really saved my bacon!"

"No problem." I said. "How did those guys catch you?"

"I dunno...I think I was asleep when it happened." Luke shrugged.

"I'm just happy your safe!" Sarah nodded.

"Do you need anything?" Kiera asked.

"Nah, I'm good. Check it out!" He suddenly placed a small bag of coins in front of us. "I got this from a treasure box I found! Good thing those guys didn't take it from me, huh?"

"That's...a lot." Kiera stated with a dumbstruck look.

"So what are you guys doing now? I'm not busy." Luke said.

"We were just heading towards that village." I pointed to it.

"Looks neat! Mind if I tag along there? I can treat you guys!" He said as he picked up the bag with his teeth.

"Yay! Let's go together!" Sarah cheered, making the two bound off.

"One thing after another..." I sighed as me and Kiera followed them.

 _Quest Life_

Meanwhile, a familiar figure was stomping around Petal Path. "That damn punk! Making a fool outta Da Croc! He's gonna pay! He's gonna pay dearly!"

Da Croc suddenly noticed something on the edge of the river, a figure of some sorts. "What da heck?" He walked over and realised it was a Ferroseed. "Hey! Get up ya spiky sloth!"

"Ugh..." The Ferroseed groaned as he righted himself. "Wh-Who are you?"

"I'm Da Croc!" He replied. "The baddest Rogue this side of the Rogue Routes! Who are you?"

"I'm Fury." He replied. "I was sent away by the river, did you save me?"

Da Croc scratched his head. "Sure, why not?"

"Really? Thanks man, Rogues gotta stick together, huh?" Fury narrowed his eyes. "But now I'm so mad! Those stupid pokemon that sent me flying! That Klefki, Skitty and Pawniard!"

"Pawniard?" Da Croc's interest was peaked. "Didja say Pawniard? What was his name?"

If Fury had arms, he would have shrugged. "Never caught it, or any of them."

'It has to be that Elin Ray!' Da Croc thought. 'Looks like destiny wants Da Croc to get some payback!' He turned towards Fury. "Looks like its fate dat Da Croc and you met. I have a sour history with dat Pawniard."

"Good, 'cause I've got a Cubone's bone to pick with all three of 'em!" Fury declared.

"Sounds like he's got some little friends now..." Da Croc pondered. "Listen, if ya join me, we can take 'em down!"

"In that case, I'll follow you anywhere!" Fury nodded.

"Welcome to Da Croc Gang then, Fury!" Da Croc grinned. "But since dere's three of dem and two of us...c'mon! We're heading to Unao!"

"Unao? Why all that way?" Fury asked.

"I have an...acquaintance, who owes me a favour there. We'll pummel them three on three! Hahahahah!" Da Croc laughed as the pair set off.

 **Neeeeeeew chapter! Sorry its so late you guys! In this chapter, we've seen a bit more action, and got a bit of foreshadowing, like, who is 'The Don'? You'll have to keep reading to find out!**

 **Also, this chapter introduces our first OC, Luke from BloodStarGeneral! Those of you who read Split Worlds, you've GOT to remember this guy!**

 **Linking to that, I do feel guilty about all the OC's I've rejected, so I've decided to cameo a few of them! For example, Meob and Purrloe in this chapter were based off of ultima-owner and The Pokemon Warrior's entries respectively, sorry you guys!**

 **In addition, I would like to thank ghost83 and Wildlian, who took the time to improve their OC creating skills and have shown major improvement, very well done, you two!**

 **Lastly, to What Lies Beyond, your OC definitely shows promise, but can you please submit them styled in the form provided in Chapter 1? That way I can effectively evaluate them as a character.**

 **As always, thank you so much for reading you guys, and I shall see you all in the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Sunny Sunnia Surprises!

 **Current Location: Sunnia**

 **Residents: Sunnycide, Gogon, Tangrowth, Seedot, Cherubi, Petilil, Lilligant, Cottonee, Whimsicott, Roserade, Hoppip, Nuzleaf**

"Sunnia?" I read the colourfully painted sign next to the entrance.

"At least its aptly named." Kiera said, looking up at the bright sky above us.

I looked over my shoulder to see Srah and Luke chasing each others tails. "Okayyyy...guys! We're gonna go look around!"

"Yeah!" "Let's go!" They both cheered before bounding past me.

"Sheesh, they're excitable." I breathed before stepping into the little village.

The smell of fresh green grass filled my non-existent nostrils as I strolled down the little cobblestone path. On my right side was a little pond with some lilypads floating in it, and a small garden of flowers tended to by a Petilil and Lilligant, whilst on my left was a line of little wooden houses with bright paint of soft colours from pink to baby blue, with some having little signs above their doors to represent them being a business. It was, overall, very quaint.

'This is very nice.' I thought as I knelt down in front of the pond. 'Usually you only get these kind of places in storybook tales...then again this isn't by any means normal.'

"Hello!"

"Woah!" I jumped back as one of the lilypads popped up, revealing it to be a Lotad instead.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to scare ya!" The Lotad beamed as he hopped out of the pond. "I'm Lohop! And these are my brothers, Lodo and Lobin."

The two other lilypads revealed themselves as Lotad with a cheery "Hello!" each.

"N-Nice to meet you." An example of me not really knowing what to say. "What are you guys doing ina pond?"

"We always like to settle in water." Lohop said.

"And this water's lovely and clean." Lodo nodded.

"Plus, it gives us a good place to practice." Lobin added.

"Practice?" I echoed.

"Oh yes! We're practicing to become a famous song and dance group!" Lodo smiled.

"And we call ourselves..." The three of them posed together. "The Lotad Trio!"

"Right..." I said.

"Would you, perchance, like to hear our song?" Lobin asked.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease?" All three of them pleaded.

"Sure, why not?" I couldn't say no to their little Lotad faces.

"Hooray! Alright, just like we rehearsed!" All three of them cheered.

 _"Do a wiggle to the left, a wiggle to the right,_

 _Let's stay up and dance all night!_

 _Just get ready and take a chance,_

 _Everybody do the Lotad Dance!_

 _Jump up, down, and all around,_

 _Move your body 'till you hit the ground!_

 _Skip, boogie, roll and prance,_

 _Everybody do the Lotad Dance!_

 _Reach for the sky with just one hop,_

 _Time to get down and boogie and bop!_

 _Hey there, c'mon just take a glance,_

 _Everybody do the Lotad Dance!"_

The three of them finished by toteming on top of each other.

I admit, I did enjoy it, and I applauded them for it. "Wow, that was actually really good."

"Really!?" All three of them asked with sparkly eyes.

"Yeah, you guys could really go far." I said.

"So cool! Let's get back to practicing!" And so the three of them jumped back into the pond, and I chuckled to myself as they submerged.

"Elin! Elin!" I looked to see Sarah jumping up and down excitedly. "Look! We found a cafe! Let's eat!"

I sprang to my feet. "Food! I am THERE!"

We entered the little cafe to the chime of a doorbell. Looking around I could spot various Grass-types such as Cherubi, Roserade and Seedot eating, it was easy to spot Kiera and Luke over by the counter.

"Guys! Guys!" Luke waved us over excitedly. "Look at all this cool food!"

"Let's see..." I sat down and picked up a menu. "Sitrus Panini, Tiny Mushroom Salad, Moomoo Milk Porridge...this is a lot of variety."

"Hello there!" I looked up to see a Tangrowth wearing a green apron. "Haven't seen you guys around before, Questers?"

"Yeah." Kiera nodded.

"Always nice to see a new face!" He said. "So then, what can I get you?" He wrote down our orders (I was going with the Pecha Berry and Cheese sandwich.) on a little pad. "Fine choices, and will you be using Up Ingredients?"

"Up Ingredients?" I echoed in confusion.

"Do you remember how the Professor Doctor said that food can help you boost stats?" Kiera said. "Well, Up Ingredients are key components in that, they give you certain boosts depending on what you add in. Sorry, but we don't have any."

"That's perfectly fine, I'll be back in a minute." He waved before heading off to his work area.

"I can't wait to eat!" Sarah cheered.

"I'm actually curious as to what Pecha Berries taste like." I admitted.

"Excuse me, are you really Questers?"

"Hm?" I turned the other way to see a Snivy sitting next to me. "Well, yeah."

"Sorry, didn't mean to impose." He apologised, he seemed to have a hint of a French accent. "It's just the first time I've seen any Questers."

"Do people not pass through here often?" I asked.

He shook his head. "To be honest, I'm not sure, I only recently arrived in Sunnia myself." He helf out a hand. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sean."

"I'm Elin, and this is Kiera, Sarah and Luke." I introduced everyone as I shook his hand.

"Wow, didn't realise a Pawniard's blade can bend like that." Sean chuckled.

"Yeah, it's...a fact." I said.

"Here you go, everybody!" Tangrowth presented our dishes. "That'll be 490, please."

"Oh hey! I think I have enough from those Rogues!" I reached into my Hammerspace. "How do you get what you want? This thing is-" Suddenly a familiar object fell and bounced on the ground, rolling away. "Hoopa's ring!"

"Don't worry! I can pay!" Luke offered as he got out his pouch. "Um...how am I supposed to eat?"

"Your a four legged Pokemon, so you should just be able to eat naturally, right?" Kiera suggested.

"Really? Awesome!" Luke grinned before digging in.

I jumped off my seat and quickly grabbed it. "Phew, that was a close o-gah!" As I had lifted it up, I got a perfect look through the ring.

Instead of the Snivy I was talking to, I saw an average built, 5'11 foot guy with short brown hair and matching eyes wearing a black bomber jacket over a plain white shirt, dark blue trousers and black shoes.

And in place of the energetically eating Poochyena was an equally energetically eating very tall guy, around 6'1, with the same gauged ears and an average, slightly muscular build with dark piercing green, slightly slanted eyes. With choppy black hair going down to around his chin, with bangs that swept over and fell just above his right eye. And he was wearing a black T-shirt with a long sliver zip up hoodie, torn up navy blue jeans with a silver studded belt, and black checkered shoes.

"I actually forgot about this." I admitted as I lowered the ring. "Hey, everyone, can we group outside?"

"Uh, sure, Elin." Kiera shrugged as we all grabbed our respective foods.

"You too." I seized Sean's wrist as I ate my sandwich.

"Alright..." He said hesitantly as I pulled him out.

 _Quest Life_

"Thank Arceus I'm not the only human here." Sean said. "I can't believe how fortunate I am to meet you."

"This is really cool! Your all nice as well!" Luke smiled with a wagging tail.

"It was pretty much dumb luck I looked through the ring at you guys.." I admitted with a nervous sweatdrop.

"Dumb luck for the win!" Luke declared.

"May I see this Clock Compass your following?" Sean asked.

"Sure." I took out the Clock Compass and held it in front of me. "It looks like its still pointing that way." I peered into the distance to see some mountains across the lush green fields.

The Snivy crossed his arms. "And your just going along with this?"

"Preeeeeeetty much!" Sarah said all too happily.

"Hooray for the crazy Rotom!" Luke cheered.

"He's a Professor Doctor!" Kiera argued.

"At least it gives us something to accomplish, I'm actually pretty interested in it." I spoke up.

"Fair enough." Sean nodded. "And I guess that I'll probably end up not doing much so...what the hell, I'll help."

"Me too!" Luke cheered. "It's just like Inuyusha, gathering these shard things!"

"Inu-what?" Kiera said.

"It's an anime." I told her.

"Anime for the win!" The two of us cheered.

Sean looked at the mountains. "It actusally doesn't look too far away, but it might be dangerous...maybe we should split into two groups. One will gather information, the other will get supplies."

"That sounds like a good plan." Kiera agreed.

"So, we should have 2 for supplies, 3 for info." Sean thought aloud. "Any volunteers?"

"I'll go with Sarah to get supplies." Luke offered.

"Yay! Supplies! You can trust us!" Sarah saluted.

"Then that leaves us to gather info. Let's go." We all nodded before heading off.

Kiera began talking to the Petilil whilst Sean found a Cottonee to talk to, with Sarah and Luke entering the joint Item/Gear shop. I meanwhile went to the other end of Sunnia, closest to our destination at this point in time, and found a Gogoat guarding the way.

"Hello." I greeted it, only for it to remain silent. "Er, can you tell me about those mountains over there?"

He looked down at me, and I shrank under his intimidating look. "The mountains themselves are unnamed, but they are home to the Vault Mines."

"Wh-What re the Vault Mines?" I hesitantly continued my questioning.

"Something you need not concern yourself with." He dismissed me.

'Charming.' I thought.

"Elin? Whose this?" Kiera asked as she and Sean came over.

"Guard I guess." I shrugged. "So uh..we actually need to go through here-"

"Not allowed." He interrupted me.

"Hold on." Sean spoke up. "The Pokemon I just talked to said that others come through here all the time."

"Workers only." Was the blunt reply.

"This is going nowhere fast." I sighed.

"Negotiation? Bribary?" Kiera suggested.

"We're back!" Sarah's voice resounded behind us.

"Hey you two-what!?" This was not a good day for me not to get shocked, but I was now staring at a ball of clothing and trinkets! "What's all this!?"

"We bought all this Gear!" Luke smiled. "Spent all my money on it."

"Why did you buy so much? We can only have three each!" Sean exclaimed.

"They all looked nice." Sarah reasoned.

"I actually quite approve of this!" Another new voice? I looked behind the ball of Gear to see a Sunflora wearing a black top hat with a pink flower in it, a smiley sticker on his right leaf, and a...green hawaiin flower shirt? "Are these the friends you were telling me about?"

"Uh-huh." The both of them nodded.

"Splendid!" He tipped his hat to us. "My name is Sunnycide, and I am the mayor of fair Sunnia. I was just doing my daily Gear shopping when I spotted these two buying a gracious amount of Gear. Usually I'm the only one who shops there, but this pair here has given our dear shopkeepers a healthy amount to feed their children."

"Your welcome." They smiled.

"So, I understand your group wishes to go to the Vault Mines?" Sunnycide said.

"That's right, sir." Sean agreed.

"Oh please, no formalities, you make me feel old." Sunnycide said before tipping his hat to the Gogoat. "Gogon."

"Sunny." Gogon nodded.

"A little nickname of mine." Sunnycide whispered to us. "I understand you take your duties very seriously, but I believe it is acceptable to allow these generous Questers to pass, don't you? Besides, they look very capable and able to take care of themselves."

"Understood." He moved aside. "You all may pass."

"Thank you very much!" We waved as we walked pas them, with Sarah and Luke pushing their ball of Gear along.

"I guess you two really helped us out." I laughed.

"Glad to be of service!" Luke said.

"Oh yes! That reminds me!" Sunnycide says as he pulled out a violet bow tie. "I got this for you, Gogon!"

A sweatdrop appeared on the side of the Gogoat's head. "Sunny...please, no."

"Spoilsport." The Sunflora pouted.

 **And so another chapter is complete! This time, we are introduced to Jeffrey Seven's polite, tactical partly French OC Sean the Snivy! Those of you who read Split Worlds most likely remember him for one reason or another!**

 **This chapter, we are also introduced to Up Ingredients, important if you want to strengthen any stats! Some examples are Wonder Wheat, Heartomatoes and Dagger Carrots. If you've got any suggestions, leave them in a review!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you next time! Oh, and one more thing...Everybody do the Lotad Dance!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Down in the Vault Mines

 **Current Location: Vault Mines Path**

 **Questers: Elin (Swift Scarf, Actors Collar, Teddiursa T-Shirt), Keira (Fairy Key, Bronze Ring, Strawberry Earrings), Sarah (Cute Bow, Mareep Mittens, Pikachu Backpack), Luke (Gangster Glasses, Blue Tail Bow, Clown Nose), Sean (Leaf Neckerchief, Sunny Specs, Tail Fan)**

We were currently making our way up into the mountains, managing to find a stable sandy path (though it was by no means easy) and could steadily ascend. Unfortunately the big ball of Gear was wearing us down, so we had to put on as much as possible to make it easier.

"Please don't tell me we have to climb over this entire mountain." I mumbled.

"They spoke about the Vault Mines, so there must be an entrance around here somwhere." Sean reasoned.

"C'mon! Let's keep going!" Luke called down, as he and Sarah had bounded off ahead.

"Easy for you to say, your not made of steel." I muttered as I swung my arms back and forth to try and get a bit of momentum. Unfortunately I accidentally slashed one of the rocks, sending several sparks flying. "Woah!"

"Are you okay?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, just, that surprised me." I breathed, before picking up one of the rocks. "Hmm..." I began scraping my blade across the side of the rock, which felt surprisingly nice. "This feels pretty good, giving my blades a sharpen."

"Makes sense." Kiera said as she floated down inbetween us. "If you keep your wrists in top condition, your bound to feel good!"

"Guess its a pokemon trait." I figured as I sharpened my blades.

We continued our trek until Luke called down to us: "Heyyyyyyyyy! We found something!" We quickly hurried up to find a large gaping hole in the cliff face.

"This must lead into the mines!" Sarah said.

I peered in to see light further down. "Looks like its illuminated, so someone has to be down there."

"Then let's stop standing around and go!" Luke declared as we all made our way in.

It was pretty difficult to get in, with nothing but erratic spiking rocks as footholds, but once we got down onto a solid flat surface it was much easier to keep going. Despite the light at the end of the path, it was fairly dark and we had to tread carefully.

"Shh." Kiera suddenly stopped us. "Do you here that?"

We all went silent as we listened, and I could make out an echoing sound of faint voices and the breaking of rocks.

"Looks like there really are workers down here." I whispered.

"Maybe they can help us find a way through." Sean suggested.

"Good idea, what do you two think?" I turned to Luke and Sarah, only to find them staring upwards. "Uhh...Sarah? Luke?"

"Youuuuu might wanna look up." Luke said.

I raised a non-existent eyebrow and turned my head skyward, for my eyes to widen in shock.

Hanging above us was a whole flock of Zubat.

"Don't make any sudden movements..." Sean whispered.

We began carefully shuffling our way forwards, until the slightest movement of rocks made us realise all of the Zubat were looking at us.

"Crud." I stated, before they descended on us.

"Hello!" "Good day to you!" "How pleasant to meet you." They were flying all around us! And what they were saying was surprisingly nice!

I made a blind run towards the light, only to halt when a small little Zubat flew in front of me. "Are you my mummy?"

'Oh noooooo...' I thought before I continued running.

"Would you like to help out at my orphanage?" "Do you need your helmet shined?" "Will you be the godfather of my five daughters?" They were all so friendly and kindhearted! Why!? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?

We collapsed into a light filled cave as the Zubat retreated, panting from exhaustion as all I could think about was how many Zubat's I'd ignored, beaten or repelled in my entire Pokemon gaming life.

"Who else feels really guilty?" I groaned.

"Me." Everybody replied.

"Oh? You meet some Zubat on your way here?" We looked up to see an Exadrill standing over us with a grin. "Don't worry about 'em, you may feel a bit bad but they don't cause any trouble."

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

"Name's Exdrin, I'm in charge of the mining operation here in the Vault Mines." He introduced himself. "Judging from your Gear, I take it your Questers, eh?"

"That's right." I nodded as we stood up and brushed ourselves down. "Hope we're not intruding."

"Not at all." Exdrin laughed. "Good to see some new faces here. C'mon, our base is just along here."

As he led us along we noticed the lanterns hanging up. "Are these yours?" Kiera asked.

"Yeah, beats working in the dark." Exdrin said. "Ah, here we are."

We entered a large cave like area that extended back into a great chasm with a network of track lines crossing over each other like a confused rollercoaster. In the area that overlooked it and had solid ground to stand on was a well lit area held up by supporting wooden beams, with Pokemon digging into the walls. I could spot a Bunnelby, Dugtrio, Numel and Cranidos working.

"Alright, crew, you can take a breather." The Pokemon stopped working and turned to us. "These are some Quester's passing through."

We introduced ourselves as the crew came over. "Nice to meet you!" The Bunnelby greeted us. "We're the Vault Mine Crew!"

"For Pokemon like us..." "It's the best job..." "And it pays well, too!" The three heads of the Dugtrio told us.

"What exactly do you do down here?" Sean asked.

"We mine of course." Exdrin nodded. "We all know Dig specifically for that purpose. Cranidos, why not give a demonstration?"

"Yessir!" Cranidos nodded as he walked towards a wall. "Mining is a delicate process, and requires much needed strength. I personally choose to harness my inner warrior, like so...AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He smashed his head into the wall, causing a large chunk of it to be obliterated.

"Wh-What part of that was delicate?" I stammered in shock.

"That was AWESOME!" Luke cheered.

Cranidos began looking through the rubble, until he picked something out and gave it to Exdrin. "Ahhh, here's a good one." We all crowded round to see it.

"A Full Gem!" Kiera gasped at the star shaped gem that sparkled in a million colours.

"It's so pretty!" Sarah smiled.

"Wow..." Luke breathed.

"Using one of these, it gets your HP all up and erases bad status effects." Exdrin told us.

'Guess it's a Full Restore then.' I thought.

"That's the reason this place is called the Vault Mine. It's a treasure trove of Gems. We're actually one of the main Gem providers!" Exdrin beamed proudly.

"Hard to imagine when there's just five of us..." Numel pondered aloud.

"It's due to all of our hard work." Cranidos said.

"We also find some Revives and Max Revives as well." Oh, so I guess they count. "There's also talk of Nuggets being here."

"Nuggets?" Sean echoed.

"Uh-huh. But I've been here since I was a Drilbur, and I've never seen a glint of the stuff." The Excadrill huffed. "Old Abra's tale if you ask me." Why an Abra? "Still though, selling this stuff mames us plenty to live off of, it's not a bad life. Plus, exploring this old mountain is pretty adventuorous. That reminds me, Numel, we're gonna need a replacement lamp since our last one broke."

"Okay..." He lazily nodded as he walked over to an open box and pulled out a lantern, breathing fire into it to set it aflame.

"So you make the lanterns." Sean figured.

"Uh-huh, I'm the only Fire-Type so...yeah..." Numel nodded.

"That's why he's a valuable member." Exdrin nodded.

I suddenly felt a tugging on my scarf, and I tuned to see Bunnelby. "You guys sure have got a lot of Gear."

"Oh yeah, we went...binge shopping." I gave a half-lidded annoyed look at Luke, who just shrugged.

"Is there..." "Possibly any..." You don't need?" Dugtrio asked.

"Of course!" Luke dumped the remaining Gear from his hammerspace.

"Wow!" All of the miners marvelled at the collection.

"H-Hey, would you be willing to give some of that Gear?" Bunnelby asked. "I usually don't have time to get new Gear so uh..."

"My son's birthday is coming up..." "If you could give us some of that Gear..." "We would be very grateful!" Dugtrio added.

"Take what you want!" Luke offered.

"You can have some of this stuff as well..." I said as I took off the Actor's Collar.

"Agreed." Sean said as he took off the tail fan.

So we gave the Gear to the miners, effectively ridding ourselves of the junk. Me, Kiera and Sarah had kept our original Gear, whilst Luke and Sean kept their Gangster Glasses and Leaf Neckerchief respectively.

"Thanks for all this." Exdrin smiled. "Here, take these as a thanks." He handed us a Small HP Gem and Revive each.

"Thank you very much." We said as we pocketed the items.

"So, you guys are really wanting to go through the mountain?" Cranidos asked, to which I nodded.

"In that case, you should take one of these..." Numel handed me a lantern that looked like a Lampent, it even had the arms. "There are still places we haven't come across yet, so if you find anywhere dark...yeah..."

"Thank you, Numel." I put it with the other stuff.

"Over this way." Exdrin guided us over to the beginning of several tracks, where some mine carts waited. "Using these is the best way to get to the other side of the mountain quickly. Their spacious, but I'd still recommend taking one each."

Everybody got into a cart each, but staring out at the winding twisting tracks made my stomach feel like a black hole. "Um...are you sure this is the only way?"

"Unless you want to wait for rock formations to form." Cranidos shrugged.

'Brilliant.' I hesitantly climbed into the last cart as Bunnelby hopped by the lever.

"Thank you again for stopping by, come back anytime." Exdrin told us. "By the way, keep an eye out for any Rogues, a few get in here."

"Wait, what?" Sean said.

"Please keep your appendages, antennae or other such body parts in the vehicle at all times." Bunnelby announced. "Arceus speed to you!" He flipped the lever and the carts moved.

And plummeted.

"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as the carts instantly shot back up and split up on their different paths. "Stop the cart! I've changed my mind! Let me off!"

"Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" "This is fun!" At least Luke and Sarah were enjoying themselves.

"Oh no! Nonononononono!" My cart started spinning down a whirlpool track before righting itself. "I'm gonna be sick..."

Sean's cart dropped and wobbled beside mine. "Elin, what's wrong?"

"I hate rollercoasters!" I admitted. "And being at this height doesn't help!"

"Just endure it! We'll meet up at the exiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" He told me just before he was swerved away.

"I won't last that long!" I cried desperately, before I ascended up next to Luke and Kiera.

"Da-da-dadalala-da-da-dadalala-da-da-dadalala." Luke sang to himself.

"What are you singing?" Kiera asked.

"Action music." Luke replied.

"But that's Star Wars!" I called. "It should be da-da-da-daaaaaaaa-da-da-daaaaaaaan-da-da-da-daaaaaaaaa-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaaaaa-da-da-daaaaaaaaaa!"

"That's Indiana Jones!" Luke pointed out.

"WHAT are you two talking about?" Kiera sighed.

"It's a human thiiiiiiiiiing! Nooooooooooo!" I screamed as I CURVED through a cave. "I'm never gonna survive this! Okay, okay, I'll just stare at the ceiling!" I looked up at the rocky roof, seeing nothing but stones looking back at me. "There, no heights or anything."

...Was it just me, or was that one rock getting bigger?...Oh crap, it was falling! Directly towards me!

"What the hell!?" I jumped to the other side of the cart as the rock landed where I previously was. "I don't need things falling on me right now!"

Suddenly the rock uncurled, revealing itself to be a Geodude. "Finally! I was waiting up there forever!" He floated in front of me. "Alright, bub, hand over your hammerspace and your Gear."

"You know...this really isn't a good time." I said, looking down at the blackness beneath us.

"Then do it quickly." He insisted.

"Oh just go away." I groaned.

"Think your a wise guy? Well guess what? It's go time, pal!" He threw a punch, which I had to duck to avoid!

"No! Not in here!" I panicked as I swerved out of the way of his punches.

 _With Sean..._

"Why did they have to design these tracks like this?" The Snivy groaned, before he heard a large thud behind him. "What the-?"

He turned only to find a Roggenrola staring back at him. "Uh...what do I do again?...Oh, right! Give me all your goods! Right now!" He demanded.

"I don't think so." Sean replied, slipping into a battle stance.

"Oh." The Roggenrola said awkwardly. "Then, uh...I guess I have to fight! Headbutt!" The Roggenrola threw itself as Sean, who nimbly swerved behind him, though the Rock-Type crashed into the other side of the cart, causing it to wobble dangerously.

'Fighting in this thing isn't good...' Sean thought. 'I'll have to defeat this guy quickly!'

 _With Luke and Sarah..._

The remaining two human-Pokemon were riding side by side as the carts trundled along. "Man, this all sure escalated quickly." Luke huffed. "Ah, well, its fun at least!"

"Yeah, and everybody here has been so kind." Sarah agreed. "This world is really nice, when you think about it."

"Heh, yeah, it is." Luke smiled.

"HIYOOOOOOOO!" "HIYAAAAAAAAA!" The two were interrupted as a figure fell into each of their carts.

"We are the Machop Bros." The two Machop revealed themselves.

"...Who?" Both asked, making the duo fall flat on their faces.

"We are strong Rogues around these parts!" "Our skills are unparalleled!" They argued.

"Still haven't heard of you." "No clue." Again, they faceplanted the cart ground.

"It doesn't matter." Luke's Machop grinned. "We'll be taking you hammerspace stuff once we defeat you!"

"You both are Normal and Dark type." Sarah's Machop pointed out. "You will surely fall in defeat!"

"I don't feel like it today!" "I'm not gonna lose!" They both argued.

"Karate Chop!" The two Machops threw a chop each, which were both dodged.

"Bite!" Luke bit down on the Machop's arm hard, but he didn't even flinch.

"You think that will work!?" He threw the Poochyena off. "Karate Chop!" Once again, Luke dodged.

"Then how about Quick Attack!" Luke threw his body into the opponent, knocking him against the edge of the cart.

"Fake Out!" Sarah clapped her paws together, sending out a small shockwave that stopped Machop. "Now Doubleslap!" Whilst he was in shock, She quickly smacked him with her tail, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Ugh! You! Karate Chop!" He swung his attack and hit her in the side.

"Ahhhhhh!" Sarah screamed as she fell back.

"Sarah!" Luke gasped.

"Low Kick!" Whilst he was distracted, Machop swung his leg and hit Luke in his front legs.

"Gah!" He hissed as he collapsed.

"This is the end of you." Luke's Machop stated. "Isn't that right, brother?...Brother?" He looked over to the other cart, and his jaw dropped.

"I am so sorry." The Machop had hearts in his eyes, and was kneeling down to help Sarah. "I am unforgivable for hitting a Pokemon as cute as you." Cute Charm had got him good and proper.

"What...the..." Luke's Machop said.

"Growl!" Luke growled out a small red soundwave which enveloped the Machop.

"My strength!" He gasped.

"Quick Attack!" Luke slammed into him, sending the Machop flying out of the cart and onto a rocky platform; defeated.

"Doubleslap!" Two painful slaps were heard as the other Machop was sent flying into the wall.

"Wow...what a female." The Machop groaned as it fell next to its brother, both having swirls for eyes.

"Phew..." Luke wiped a sweat from his brow. "Are you okay, Sarah?"

"I'm hurt but...yes, I'm okay." She smiled weakly.

"Don't worry, we're almost at the end." Luke assured her.

 _With Sean..._

"Headbutt!" Again, Sean dodged the attack, causing the Roggenrola to stumble.

"Leer!" Sean's eyes glowed red as visions of them appeared and hit the Roggenrola, encasing it in a red aura.

"Ah, ahhhh..." The Roggenrola looked strained as it endured the effects of Leer.

"And Growth!" He gained a green aura that quickly faded.

"Ngh...Rock Blast!" Roggenrola created a sphere of rock that it launched at Sean.

"Vine Whip!" Two long green vines extended from Sean's back which knocked away the rocks launched by the attack.

"H-Huh!?" Roggenrola gasped.

"Hyah!" Sean quickly smacked Roggenrola across the face with a vine, sending him falling back with a swirl in his core, effectively one-shotting him. "And that's that."

He walked over to the Roggenrola and knelt down. "Hey, wake up."

"E...Eh?" The Roggenrola sat up, and realised who was talking to him. "Ah! Don't toss me off, please! I don't wanna fall!"

"Calm down, I'm not gonna do that." Sean reassured him. "You don't seem like a bad Pokemon. Just...a little misguided, that's all. So I guess I'll let you off with a warning."

"R-Really?" Roggenrola asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Sean peered down the tracks, and saw a rocky platform with a path to sunlight next to it. "This is your stop." He wrapped his vines around the Roggenrola and lifted him to the ledge as the cart passed it. "Stay out of trouble, got it?"

"Got it!" Roggenrola nodded, his core gleaming with admiration as Sean disappeared down the track.

 _With Elin..._

"Woah!" I ducked under another punch.

"Stop moving!" He growled. "Tackle!" He slammed into the side, making the cart tilt so far it could topple!

"StopstopstopSTOP!" I panicked as I righted the cart. "That's it! I've had enough of you! Faint Attack!" I jumped behind him and slashed his back with a dark aura.

"Argh!" He gasped.

"Faint Attack! Faint Attack! Faint Attack!" I hit him repeatedly with all my limbs, sending him tumbling covered in bruises. "Had enough!?"

"Y-You little..." He groaned, barely able to float. "I've still got...one last trick...in my moveset!" He suddenly began glowing brightly.

'Shit! Don't tell me he's-'

"SELF-DESTRUCT!"

There was an explosion, I was thrown back, nothing but ringing in my ears.

And then I fell.

Down, down, down...down? I didn't feel like I was falling any more.

My vision was blurry, but I looked up, and saw indistinguishable shapes. I shook my head, the ringing subsiding, and I realised that I was being carried by a flock of Zubat.

"Don't worry, we've got you." One Zubat assured me as they carried me up and onto a ledge. "Are you alright?"

"I think so..." I stumbled for a bit, but then regained my balance. "Thank you, you saved me."

"No problem! Happy to help!" And so the Zubats flew off.

I breathed a long sigh of relief now that I was out of that deathtrap, but then I realised I had no I dea where I was, and it was kinda dark.

"Ah, hold on." I pulled the Lampent Lantern out from my hammerspace. "Light...light...oh, wait." I scraped my blade against the rocks, throwing sparks into the lantern which turned into a flame. "There we go."

I held the lantern up as I carefully started walking. The tunnel was fairly narrow, so I could only move forward. I eventually had to stop when I encountered what I presumed was a rockslide.

"Oh geez..." I groaned, setting the lantern down. "Right then..." I climbed on top and removed a boulder, tossing it aside. "Right, one down, several to g-OH!" The boulders underneath my feet gave way, and I fell on my butt. "Ouch...that hurt." I picked up the (thankfully undamaged) lantern and held it up.

What the rockslide had hidden was a small room of some sorts, and an old one at that. There was a simple desk, two beds and two hanging pickaxes, all covered in dust.

"Looks like someone else was digging here..." I thought aloud, holding my lantern up to reveal a giant gaping hole at the back of the room, which I ventured into. "But why dig here specifically?" Looking around, I could find no other pathway. "No good...I'm gonna have to head back."

As I turned to leave, however, I felt my foot brush against something. "Huh?" I reached down and picked it up.

It was a Nugget.

"Seems as though someone struck gold after all..." I said, looking back at the hole.

I made my way back to where the Zubat dropped me off. "Great, now what do I do?"

"Elin!" I jumped from the shout, and looked to see everyone else on a ledge opposite me. "Everyone!"

"What are you doing over there?" Sarah called.

"We heard an explosion, is everything okay?" Sean added.

"I'm fine, just a little injured."

"I think we all are." Luke groaned.

"Hold on." Vines stretched from Sean's back and wrapped around my waist, lifting me up and over to their location.

"Thanks, Sean." I said as his vines retracted.

"I think this is a good time for everybody to use their HP Gems." Kiera said, and we all agreed, taking out one each. "Now, just crush it."

Sarah and Luke stepped on theirs, whilst Sean clench crushed his, and I sliced mine, it was really easy, like it was paper instead of a gem, but a blue light covered me, making me feel a sense of calmness as I felt my wounds and fatigue fade away.

"Everybody better?" Kiera asked.

"Lots." "Very much so." "Uh-huh!" "Yep!" We all replied.

"Good! And look!" She gestured to the sunlight seeping out of the path in front of us. "We made it to the exit!"

"Thank Arceus." Sean sighed.

"We're almost there, I can feel it." I nodded. "C'mon, guys! One last push!" And so we stepped out into the daylight.

 **New chapter! And this one's longer as well! I hope it turned out okay, but you guys can decide if much happened or not for yourselves.**

 **I might start doing some Question of the Chapter's (or QOTC) to try and involve you guys a little more. Would you guys like that? Say so in a review!**

 **Also, now that this story has exceeded 20,000 words, I will be posting a Showcase for this story in The Starfields, its a discussion/chat thread for those of you who want to talk about Quest Life characters, story, theories or improvement, so you can check that out if you want.**

 **And so, once again, I must bid you all adieu. Thank you to Kamico-chan, What Lies Beyond and c** **gstrykerz for your Up Ingrediants ideas, and to HikariLight99, yes, I am a Monster Hunter Fan...yet I don't own a single game in the series...*awkward cough***

 **See you all next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Forgotten(?) Castle

 **Gear Info: Gangster Glasses- Increases ATK and power of DARK-Type attacks, but reduces accuracy.**

 **Leaf Neckerchief- Slightly increases DEF, and reduces damage from Bug and Ice-Type moves.**

I raised my blade to cover my eyes as sunlight flooded my vision, even though we were in the mines for probably less then an hour our eyes had still adjusted accordingly.

"Ack..." I moaned as I turned away from the sunlight, seeing nothing but more rocks of varying grey shades. "Sun's too bright..."

"At least we finally made it out." Kiera said.

"Yeah, at least that-...woah." I breathed.

"What is it?" Luke asked as he bounded over to me.

I just pointed at the small crater in the middle of the tossed rocks and boulders. "Looks like something...rather, someone, impacted here." I reasoned.

"Not me." Luke shrugged.

"It wasn't me, either. Must've been another human..." Sean thought.

"Crap!" I cursed in realisation. "I forgot to check out those miners with Hoopa's ring! It could have been one of them! I have gotta remember to do that more often..."

"You'll have a second chance when we go back through." Man, Sean was right, we'd have to pass through again anyway on our way back...

"Look! Lookie!" Sarah called out. "Look at this, everybody?"

"Huh?" We turned around. "What is...it...okay then..."

Standing before us was a large grey walled, red-roofed castle, with a structure you'd only see in cartoons and picture books. However, the surprising thing was that there was a giant tree growing right through the middle of it! Roots wrapped around the towers, branches extended out through the windows, all leading up to a big umbrella of leaves at the top.

"That is a BIG tree." I stated.

"It's amazing..." Luke breathed.

"Why is it growing in the middle of a castle, though?" Sean thought aloud.

"Ah! I know!" Kiera floated in front of us. "The Professor Doctor told me of a castle that was abandoned thousands of years ago, dubbed the Forgotten Castle."

"Aptly named." I mumbled.

"Legends said that nature drove the inhabitants out...guess it was this tree." She finished.

"Wait, the tree forced Pokemon out? That doesn't make any sense." Sean said. "If it was growing, they would have killed it when it was a little sap. So, what? It was there to begin with and somehow started causing trouble? But then, why would thay build it around this tree in the first place? Geez..." He rubbed his temple in thought.

I took out the Clock Compass, and watched as it pointed forward, and tilted up to the top of the tree. "Looks like the shard is at the top."

"Well then, let's get climbing!" Sarah cheered as we all made our way over.

The giant double doors surrounded by bark and roots took all of us pushing together as it burst open, collapsing to the ground before I stood up and looked around. Everything was ensnared by parts of the tree, the red carpet torn as roots sprouted out from the ground, twisting through the doorways and out the windows, crawling along the walls like long fingers, blocking out the rays of light from outside. Despite the living state of the tree, it all just felt very...dead.

"This place definitely seems abandoned." I said as I stared up at the vine covered roof.

"Stair's are a no-go." Luke called, gesturing to the thick vines crashing through them.

I walked to the back of the room, where the front of the trunk stood tall and powerful, dominating the strong stone walls with its presence.

Sean, meanwhile, patted the walls and the vines. "Hey...if this place has been abandoned for so long, then why isn't there any dust?"

"Actually, that's a good point." Kiera responded. "You'd figure someplace so old would be caked in the stuff."

"Maybe the tree keeps it clean?" Sarah suggested.

"Or maybe some Pokemon has already been here." Sean said.

Whilst they were talking, I kneeled down in front of the tree, admiring the lush green grass growing at the foot of it. "This tree certainly knows how to take care of itself...hm?" I had noticed some odd looking mushrooms, their caps were wide and red with a big white spot in the middle, like a shield. "Hey, Kiera! Do you know what these are?"

The Klefki floated over to take a look. "Ah! Those are Shield Shrooms! They're Up Ingredients that increase defence!"

"In that case..." Using my blade, I cut them at the stalks and put them in my hammerspace. "Wonder if they're's other stuff in here..."

"If you need any more info on stuff you find, use the Professor Doctor's PokePad." Kiera told me.

"Oh, right!" I remembered, taking it out and enlarging the screen, which showed the stats, Gear and health of all five of us, before I walked into another room, similar to the first one, except there were a bunch of emblems made of gold, silver and other rare minerals shaped into swords and shields hanging on the walls. "Must be victory trophies or something."

I then noticed two wooden chests in the corner. "Awesome!" I jogged over to them and threw them open, finding some Pokedollars and a HP Gem. "Man, this place is filled with tons of cool stuff!"

"Hey, Elin!" I looked up at Luke's call, and walked back into the hall, where everyone was climbing up the branches. "We're heading on up to the second floor."

"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna stay down here and scavenge for a bit more." I told them.

"Suuuuuuuuure?" Sarah asked.

"I'll be fine, just a few minutes." I reassured them.

"Okay, climb up when your done." Kiera said as she helped Luke up.

I nodded as I ran into another room, where a window was free of the grasping vines, allowing sunlight to pour into a small room, where grass and a whole bunch of Up Ingredients were growing.

"Jackpot." I nodded as I held up the PokePad, holding it over some very plump pink and purple grapes. "Energrapes, huh? They look nice...and these must be Dagger Carrots..." I plucked the sharpened carrot out of the grass, revealing the dirt underneath.

I then froze as I heard a thump above me, and some dust fell onto my head. "What the-? What are they doing up there?"

 _Quest Life_

The Shroomish cried as it was sent flying out of the window, whilst a Bulbasaur lay slumped against the wall with swirled eyes.

"Who knew that Rogues would be here too?" Kiera breathed.

"They blended in perfectly with the tree branches..." Sean mumbled. "Why are they here, though? The treasure chests and Up Ingredients haven't been looted. We'd better check around more before we continue up, just to be safe."

"Roger!" Luke and Sarah saluted.

 _Quest Life_

"There, I think I got everything." I scraped my blades against each other as if I was dusting off my hands, causing me to shudder from the horrible screech of metal on metal. "Ack, gotta remember not to do that..."

As I walked back into the hall, I froze as I heard a voice. "So, your all on your own."

"Huh!?" I spun around, expecting someone to be behind me, but nobody was there. "Who's there?"

"It's very rude to barge into someone else's home uninvited." Where was that voice coming from?

"Hold on, you live here?" I figured if I kept talking, I could discern where it was coming from.

"Not just me, many live here." Up! I looked, but nothing was there. "As such, I'm not very appreciative." It was coming from somewhere else now!"

"IIIIII thought this place was called Forgotten Castle because it was abandoned." Keep talking, keep talking...

"Forgotten Castle?" The voice chuckled, and I looked to the right of me. Again, nothing. "Is that what you call it?" A different spot AGAIN! "We preferably refer to the tree, as Harmonia."

"N-Nice name." Damnit, never stutter in a situation like this.

The voice chuckled again. "Flattering, but I'm still rather offended by your disregard of hospitality, so..." I turned to my left, but it was gone again.

And I felt a shadow fall over me.

"I'm going to have to deal with you."

It was right behind me!

I spun around, but the figure had vanished, and I looked all over, trying to get some sense of what was happening.

"Hey, up here."

I tilted my head skyward to see a Grovyle laying casually on one of the branches, a green reed with two leaves hung out of his mouth, and a scar barely missed his left eye, which were both piercing yellow.

"Your a Grovyle." I stated.

"You know my name? I'm flattered." He jumped off of the branch and landed a few paces in front of me with impressive skill and nimbleness. "However, most of the Pokemon living here refer to me by my title...Nature's Knight."

"That's...a cool title." And I wasn't lying.

He allowed himself a small smirk. "Thank you. Now, back to my earlier topic..."

"I know, I know. We're really sorry we barged in like this, we thought nobody else was here!" I told him.

The Grovyle kept his unnerving gaze on me. "We get extremely few visitors, what brings a group of Questers like you out here? Heard a rumour about some good treasure?" He smirked and folded his arms. "Take whatever you need, we don't have any use for that gold or Gear crap. Just take it and go."

'Did he just say crap?' I thought before remembering I was in the middle of a conversation. "That's very kind of you, but me and my friends are actually looking for something specific."

"Oh?" His gaze was unwavering, and creeping me out. "And what would that be?"

"Um, I don't exactly know what it looks like." I admitted. "But it's called a Key Shard, so, I guess it looks like a shard?"

His eyes instantly sharpened, and I flinched. "You came here looking for a shard?" He uncrossed his arms. "What do you want it for?"

"Errrr, we're on this really important quest, and...we kinda...need it..." My words faded away under the sheer aura this Pokemon was emitting.

"I cannot allow you to do that." Grovyle said with an icy determination, before slipping into a battle stance. "I will fight to defend this place."

"H-Hold on!" I panicked. "I'm not looking for a fight!"

"You started one when you made your ambitions clear, no matter your outcome." He continued. "Come on! I will not fight an unwilling opponent!"

'Is this seriously happening right now?' I thought. 'Guess this is a Pokemon's way of solving things...' "Alright, fine." I tried my best to copy his stance.

"You may have the first attack." Grovyle offered.

"Aw geez, I really don't wanna fight this guy..." I mumbled to myself. "But I guess this is how it's gonna be...here I come!" I ran towards him, and my right blade glowed slightly as I slashed at him with a Scratch, but he swerved around behind me very fast! "What the-!?"

"Bullet Seed!" I spun 180 only to cover my face with my arms as glowing green seeds peppered my arms, causing a stinging sensation that was NOT comfortable.

"Argh! Stop that!" I broke apart the attack with a double Scratch and charged again, but this time he jumped high above me! "He jumped that high!?"

"Energy Ball!" I once again defended myself as the green ball of energy hit me and exploded, grazing my arms as the smoke faded away.

'I'm part Steel, so this doesn't affect me too much.' I strategised. 'I just have to keep attacking until I can find a weakness in his defences!'

"What are you waiting for?" He challenged me with a beckon.

I narrowed my eyes as my blades glowed green. "Fury Cutter!"

"Oh? Focusing on type advantage?" He asked as I ran head on towards him. "Clever. But, thst won't work on me. Agility!" Suddenly, he vanished!

"Huh!?" Was all I had time to exclaim.

"Bullet Seed!" I felt the seeds launch into my back, so I quickly turned and saw him behind me, swinging a blade at him, but he dashed off again, leaving nothing but afterimages behind!

I was assaulted with Bullet Seeds from every direction as he evaded me again and again, he was giving me a complete runaround whilst I couldn't land a single hit!

"Aaaahhhh!" I cried in frustration as I once again missed him, but this time my eyes followed the afterimages as he dashed over to a wall and rebounded off of it, somersaulting through the air towards me, and I realised too late what he was doing.

"Pound!" Using the spinning momentum, he whipped his leaf across my entire body, sending me sprawling back a good distance with my face to the ground, now with pain coursing through me. "You probably thought you had the advantage because you are a Steel type." I struggled just to get to my blades and knees, every movement sent an ache throughout my body. "But all that damage is adding up." I glared at his sharp eyes. "So...what will you do now?"

 _Quest Life_

"This room is cool!" Sarah said as she skipped in.

The group was still on the second floor, and were now in a large wide room with stained glass windows on either side, and an old throne resting at the back. In front of it was a large patch of dirt, where a tree stood proudly, and of course, like the rest of the Forgotten Castle, it was covered in vines and branches that extended from the tree, though this one actually allowed light to pour in, giving it a fresh breath of life.

"It looks like this was once the throne room." Sean thought aloud.

"Makes you wonder what kind of king used to sit in here..." Kiera speculated.

"Could the Key Shard be in here? Because its so important?" Luke suggested.

"Elin's Clock Compass should tell us." Sean said. "What's taking him so long just to grab a few things?"

Sarah ran over to the tree before the throne and started climbing it. "Hehe, a little baby tree next to the big tree!"

"That makes me think...how, exactly, can a tree grow like this?" Kiera pondered. "The location is one thing, but the size, and the vines, it's really incredible, but also kinda...I dunno...unnatural?"

"I see your point, but the evidence is all around us." Sean waved an arm across the room. "Guess it is just kinda hard to believe."

"Um...excuse me?" Everybody looked at Sarah, who was clutching the branch she was on for dear life with her ears drooped. "Can somebody please help me? I can't get down."

"Seriously?" Sean and Kiera said, looking at the small drop from the branch to the ground.

"Don't worry!" Luke declared as he bounded over to and up the tree, lifting Sarah onto his back. "Okay! Here we-" Before he could jump though, the tree started shaking, causing the two four legged Pokemon to tumble off.

"What's happening?" Kiera gasped as the dirt around the tree began to swell, as if it was an imminent eruption.

"Stay back." Sean warned as they distanced themselves from the tree.

The earch exploded outwards as something emerged underneath the tree, with three large stone spikes next to it, a giant shell, legs thick as tree trunks, and a zigzagged mouth with spikes on either side of its head.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..." The Torterra yawned. "That was a good nap...hm?" He only just noticed the group of Pokemon standing in front of him. "Oh? Questers? It's been a long time since we've seen any. Let me guess...your looking for a treasure at the top of Harmonia, correct?"

"Harmonia? You mean, the tree?" Kiera squeaked.

"That is right." Torterra turned his head to the side, creating a satisfying cracking sound, before doing it in the opposite direction, giving the same result, and making him sigh with relief. "That's better...so, are you here for something or not?"

"Y-Yes. At least, I-I think so..." Sarah's stuttering could be sympathized with by the rest of the group, the very aura that this final evolution gave off was one of both trust and strength. There was no doubt it was a very powerful Pokemon.

"I see...in that case..." He took a single step forward, causing a small tremor and making the team flinch. "Hear me! I am Harmonia's Guardian, Torterra! If you wish to ascend to the summit of Arceus' pinnacle of natural life, you must defeat me, first!"

 _Quest Life_

"So...what will you do now?"

I finally got up on my feet, but now it was a struggle just to keep myself steady. "I...I'm not beaten yet!"

"Your determination is something to be noted." Grovyle nodded. "But even you yourself must see that your at a disadvantage, here."

'He's right...he's clearly outmatched me with his speed...what can I do?" I racked my brain for any sought of idea, when something came to me. 'That might work!' I began running forward.

"Charging forward again?" Grovyle smirked. "You really don't learn, do you?"

"Faint Attack!" As fast as possible, I swerved around behind him.

"What!?" The Grass type gasped.

"Hah!" I swung my arm as hard as possible...and he blocked it with his arm!

"Clever." He grunted, having seemingly taken some form of damage as he threw me off. "You almost got me."

"This time for sure!" I told myself as I jumped forward. "Faint Atta-"

"Fury Cutter!" My mind could only comprehend Grovyle's leaves becoming yellowy green blades, him disappearing past me, and a sharp pain flaring across my side as my eyes widened in shock from the hit. He then slashed me again, and I was sent flying back, colours and sounds whooshing past me in the wind before I was slashed in the back, and I crashed to the ground.

All I felt was the three searing strokes heating my body, burning the damage into me. "Is that all?" At his words, I immediately forced myself to my feet, but my vision was beginning to become blurry, and I was staggering all over the place. "That will of yours is stronger then I first anticipated...but, this is the end."

I could only make out him appearing in front of me, with an emeraled green blade extending from his wrist. "Farewell...Leaf Blade!"

My whole body was thrown off of the ground as the attack cut into my stomach, the wind was knocked out of me and all I knew was hurt in the space of a few seconds, before I felt my back painfully hit a wall, and just barely felt myself slide down to the ground.

Then I blacked out.

 **Finally! I finally finished this chapter! I'm really sorry for the wait, guys! But, I wrote, like half of this chapter, and then it timed out and I lost all of that! C'mon, have any of you ever experienced that? It sucks!**

 **Before I go on, though. The Pokemon Quest Life discussion thread is now officially open on the Starfield Forum! There you are free to discuss with others whatever you like about Quest Life! Characters, Gear, Up Ingredients, Favourites, Theories, even give me tips about how I can improve!**

 **I would also like to thank What Lies Beyond for Shield Shrooms, and Kamico-chan for Energrapes, they're both great Up Ingredients!**

 **Additionally, this chapter introduces a new point to Quest Life: Titles! Yes, the best Questers and the worst Rogues all have titles! So, when your OC gains a Title, what should it be? As seen from Grovyle and Torterra, the maximum length of a Title is two words, but you can be as creative as you like! Just make sure it relates to your OC, either their species, characteristics, favourite move, anything really!**

 **Lastly, I HAVE decided to start QOTC's. These are basically questions from me to you! So, here's the first one:**

 **QOTC: Who is your favourite character in Quest Life so far?**

 **That's all from me, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading, and I will see you next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Nature's Force!

 **Battle List:**

 **Elin (Lose) vs. 'Nature's Knight' Grovyle (Win)**

 **Sean, Sarah, Kiera and Luke vs. 'Harmonia's Guardian' Torterra (TBD)**

"This isn't going to be easy, huh?" Luke mumbled.

"No." Sean confirmed. "We're gonna have to be careful fighting him.

"It's rude to keep an old Pokemon waiting." Torterra said. "If you won't move first, then I will!" The leaves on his tree began to glow a bright greeen.

"Look out!" Sarah cried.

"Leaf Storm!" The group leapt away either side as a twister of razor sharp leaves blasted past them, curved around Harmonia and shot out a broken window, where the attack travelled on and on until it finally faded away.

"Wh-What power..." Kiera breathed. "He must have years of combat experience!"

"We're at a big disadvantage here..." Sean admitted. "Hmm..." He suddenly charged straight at Torterra!

"Sean!? What are you doing!?" Kiera gasped.

"Tackle!" He threw himself straight into Torterra's face, but he quickly bounced off and back to everyone else. "Practically nothing..."

"You were testing my defenses." Torterra noted. "So now you must know the damage you can do to me is very minimal."

"Yeah..." Sean said. "Leer!" He quickly flashed his eyes red, making Torterra get covered in a red aura, but he stood unaffected!

"Do you really think that will work on me?" He chuckled.

"Damn." Sean breathed as he looked at the others. "If we're going to do any damage, we have to attack him together! Spread out!"

"Got it!" "Uh-huh!" The four Pokemon ran to a different corner of the room.

"Ah, trying to prevent me from hitting you all at once." Torterra viewed again.

"Now!" All of them jumped towards Torterra with a Tackle each.

"Hmph. Protect." A green barrier appeares around Torterra that the teammates could only bounce off of uselessly before it disappeared. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

"Gah!" Sean grunted. "Fine then...how about Vine Whip!" Two vines extended from Sean's back and wrapped around the two spikes on Torterra's face, and pulled as hard as he could, forcing the final evolutions head to turn towards him.

"What are you doing?" Torterra asked calmly, even as he struggld to redirect his gaze.

"Luke! Sarah! Attack him now!" The Snivy called.

"Bite!" "Copycat!" The both of them leapt at Torterra, fangs glowing.

"So that's your plan..." Torterra muttered, the two attacking Pokemon out of his line of sight. "But that won't work! Giga Drain!" The three spikes jutting out of his back glowed green as they grew into tendrils that descended towards the two!

"No you don't! Fairy Wind!" Kiera blew an air of pink sparkles at the tendrils, causing the attacks to cancel each other out.

Luke and Sarah bit down hard on Torterra's shell, causing the Pokemon to wince slightly. Sean retracted his vines whilst the two released their grip, and they rejoined in front of Torterra. "Your better then I expected you to be." He admitted. "However, this battle has only just begun!" The leaves on his tree began glowing again, only this time they were yellow.

"So that's why light is flowing in here!" Sean realised. "Get down!"

"Solar Beam!" He fired a ray of pure solar energy from his mouth, and the group of four hit the deck as the beam flew mere inches above their heads and obliterated the ground behind them, creating a lot of impact smoke.

"Quick Attack!" Suddenly, Luke charged out of the smoke and threw his body into Torterra's head, though the big Pokemon shrugged off the Poochyena's attack.

"Leaf Tornado!" A green twister of leaves blasted out of the impact smoke straight from Sean's tail, and Torterra stood his ground and tanked the attack, only showing signs of discomfort.

As the attack faded, several pink hearts floated around him. "Protect." The green barrier shattered the hearts before it vanished. "Clever, you used the smoke to launch attacks at me as a distraction, so that that Skitty friend of yours could use Attract and try to weaken me." Sarah hissed at him in response. "I suppose you were planning for me to use Protect against Leaf Tornado, so that I couldn't stop Attract, hm?"

The Snivy clenched his 'fist' in anger. "He saw through it so easily!"

"He's not only strong, but tactical, too!" Kiera admitted.

"I've been around a long time." The Torterra spoke. "As such, I know a lot of things when it comes to battl-"

"Sneak attack!" Luke interrupted him as he charged at the Torterra with a Quick Attack.

'What!?' Every Pokemon there thought as they all watched the Poochyena with wide eyes, even Torterra.

"Pound!"

Instantly, a flash of green hit Luke, and sent him tumbling back to his team. "Luke!" Sarah gasped.

"Who-?" Luke's question was answered as a Grovyle stood next to Torterra. It had a long reed with two leaves sticking out of its mouth, and a scar was next to his left eye.

"Hey there, Old Mon." Grovyle greeted him.

"Grovyle." Torterra replied. "Where have you been?"

"Dealing with some trouble on ground level." He said as he directed his gaze to the group. "You seem pretty busy, this must be the rest of them."

"Who are you?" Kiera asked.

Grovyle crossed his arms. "My name is Grovyle, though the Pokemon around here call me 'Nature's Knight'."

"Hold on...trouble on ground level?" Luke stood up. "Hey! What did you do to Elin!?"

He narrowed his gaze. "Elin? That Pawniard? I dealt with him. He was a pushover, really."

"Why you-!" Luke growled as Sarah held him back.

"That aside, would you mind?" Torterra requested. "We can finish this much quicker together."

"Sure thing, Old Mon." Grovyle nodded, slipping into a battle stance.

"Great, it was bad enough when it was just Torterra, now there's two of them!" Sean said. "Elin, we kinda need you right now!"

 _Quest Life_

Ouch...

That really hurt...

...Huh?

Hold on...where am I? Everything's dark...

"Elin..."

What? A voice?

"Do not give up, Elin. You must keep walking down the road before you. It is your destiny..."

Wait a second! Who are you?

"We shall talk again, in due time..."

Light...finally there was some light...and, oh, yeah, there's the pain.

I groaned as my vision slowly returned to me, rubbing my helmet as I tried to remember what was going on...I lost to Grovyle, then I passed out...fantastic.

Being as careful as possible so that I didn't injure myself further, I reached into my hammerspace and pulled out a Small HP Gem, crushing it in my blade to feel relief wash over me. I had to use a second one to erase the pain and numbness, but I felt completely better!

"Hup!" I jumped to my feet and bent all my limbs to test them, and thankfully they all worked fine. "Phew, that's good...but that was weird...I wonder who that voice was?" I then realised something. "Ah! The others!"

I quickly retrieved the PokePad and opened up the status menu. I was back up at full, but everybody else was in the yellow and dropping fast! "Crud! I gotta help them! They must be on the second level!"

 _Quest Life_

"Energy Ball!" Grovyle threw the attack which exploded into Sarah, sending her flying back with a cry.

Luke hung limply with swirls for eyes as Torterra's Giga Drain sucked out his energy, before he tossed him back.

"This is not good..." Kiera panted as Sean and Sarah lay injured next to the KO'ed Luke.

"They're too strong..." Sarah meowed.

"Looks like this is pretty much over." Grovyle shrugged.

"Your all too weakened now to try any sort of comeback." Torterra said.

"N-Not yet..." Sean struggled to his knees. "I'm...not..."

"I've got this." Grovyle said as he jumped into the air, the leaves on his arm glowing green and forming into a blade. "Leaf Blade!" He fell straight down!

"Sean!" Kiera cried.

"Shit!" Sean closed his eyes and braced for impact.

There was a sudden sound of clashing blades, and Sean's eyes shot open.

I had blocked the attack with a slash of my own.

"You..." Grovyle muttered as I threw him off.

"Elin!" Everyone gasped.

"Is this the Pawniard you were talking about?" The Torterra asked.

"It's him." Grovyle confirmed.

I looked over my shoulder at my friends. "You guys okay?"

"We've been better." Sean admitted.

"Guess I didn't hit you hard enough." Grovyle grunted. "Bullet Seed!" He spat a round of seeds at me.

But things were different this time. My eyes were thinned, my senses sharpened, I could see every single bullet flying at me. "Scratch!" I let instinct kick in as I slashed through each individual seed, the pellets falling to the ground uselessly as I cut through the attack.

"Heh...I thought so." Grovyle chuckled. "That look in your eyes...it's different from before." He gave a genuine smirk. "This just got interesting...Old Mon! I'm heading up to the top!"

"What!?" Torterra growled. "You must be joking! To take him up there puts us in great danger!"

"I know...but I don't wanna be in this crappy castle to fight this guy." He suddenly dashed past me and onto the tree. "If you wanna fight, then follow me." He instantly dashed to the top.

"You get back here!" I cried as I jumped from branch to branch, following him up towards the leaves.

"That stubborn little-!" Torterra muttered.

Sean, meanwhile, stood up. "Alright, the playing fields levelled again! Luke! C'mon, Luke, get up." He pulled out his Revive. "How do you do this?" He put the item inside the Poochyena's mouth and made him swallow it.

Luke's eyes widened instantly. "EEEEEEERRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" He began rubbing his tongue against the stone ground. "Wha isth tha disgusthing tasthe!?"

"No time to explain!" Kiera said as all of them used a Small HP Gem each. "This fight's not over yet!"

 _Quest Life_

As I reached the last branch, I jumped as high as possible and burst up through the leaves, and my eyes widened at what I saw.

The head of the tree...it was almost like a giant domed room. The branches framed it perfectly as the leaves heavily surrounded it, yet sunlight poured in, making the whole area feel as if it was straight out of a fairy tale. The ground was covered in grass blooming flowers in all the colours of the rainbow, in every shape and size. And standing there with his arms folded, was Grovyle.

I landed as gracefully as possible, the flowers near me swaying as my Swift Scarf billowed before settling down.

"This is my favourite place in Harmonia." Grovyle spoke. "Beautiful isn't it? A true testament of nature's might and harmony..." He looked at me. "Take a look behind me, Quester."

I craned my neck slightly to see past him. Behind him, was a room of bark, caved in slightly. Bounded to the wall of it by countless roots, was an emerald green kite-shaped diamond, sparkling brilliantly under the light of the sun.

"I take it that's what your here for." Grovyle continued. "Well, guess what? If you want it, your gonna have to go through me."

"Why bring me here?" I felt I had to ask.

Grovyle laughed dryly and scratched his scar. "To be honest, I don't know myself. Maybe I'm just going crazy...whatever, I don't care." He slipped into his battle stance. "For both our sakes, you'd better do a little better then last time."

I also adopted a battle stance. "I definitely won't lose, this time!"

"We'll find out, won't we!?" We charged at each other with battle cries.

"Pound!" "Scratch!" He swung his arm at me, but I blocked it with a slash, he went for a left hook, but I ducked and then attempted to upperCUT him (okay that was bad) but he leaned away, then whipped his head, making the leaf on top of it smack into me. I stumbled for a second, but I quickly recovered and jabbed him in the stomach, making him jump a good few feet away from me.

"Agility!" As he ran at me, he began zigzagging at incredible speeds! I timed my attack for just as he was in front of me and slashed, but he vanished! "Energy Ball!" I realised too late that he was up in the air behind me as the attack hit me in the back and exploded.

Ignoring the damage, I swept the debris smoke away and ran towards where he would land, my blades skimming across the grass and flowers as I predicted just when he'd land.

"Pound!" As he descended, he used the velocity to swing his leaf at me!

"Feint Attack!" Just as he landed, I swerved around him and elbowed him as hard as I could in the side, sending him flying off and crashing into a thick branch.

"Alright..." Grovyle stood up and wiped his cheek. "This is starting to get good."

"Your speed won't work on me anymore." I told him.

He grinned. "That so? Well then, let's put that to the test." He crouched down, and I braced myself for whatever it was he was planning.

"Quick Attack!" Suddenly, Grovyle was gone, and a sharp pain flashed across my side before I was sent umbling back from the impact.

"Gaaah!" I cried before standing up, but that same pain flashed across the left side of my head this time!

"What's the matter? I thought you said this wouldn't work anymore?" His voice...it was coming from every single direction!

The pain hit me in the back, and I fell forward, but before I even reached the ground It stabbed into my chin and my head was thrown back, before it happened again in my right side, sending me spinning across the grass.

'Damnit...he's bouncing all over the room!' I realised. "You boosted your speed really high, Grovyle!"

"See you noticed." He chuckled from all around. "So then..."

The pain shot straight into my stomach, and for a brief moment, I could see Grovyle, punching me there. "I wanna see how you overcome this!" The punch sent me flying back, and I crashed into a branch.

 _Quest Life_

"TACKLE!" Everybody slammed into Torterra with all their might, and the Pokemon did look like he took some damage, before they were tossed away like ragdolls.

"Solar Beam!" The group scrambled as the attack blasted where they once stood.

"Hidden Power!" Kiera generated an orb of light in front of her which she threw at Torterra, exploding in his face.

"Doubleslap!" Seizing the opportunity, Sarak smacked Torterra twice across the face with her tail, before quickly retreating.

"Think you can give me the runaround, eh?" Torterra scoffed. "Too bad!" Suddenly, giant seeds with green energy sprouted on his tree. "Seed Bomb!" He shook his entire body left and right, the seeds being launched off and exploding the instant they touched something! The room was completely covered in explosions as the attack covered the whole area.

"Aaaaagggghhh!" "Eeeeeeeeeek!" "Gaaaaaaaaah!" All four of them took the attack before they crashed together on the ground, forcing themselves to their feet as soon as possible, though panting for breath.

"Your beginning to tire." Torterra observed. "Eventually, you will run out of energy to fight. I can do this all day, can you?"

"Hah...We...hah...will if we have to!" Luke declared.

"Yeah! We...hah...came all this way, together...hah...as friends!" Sarah added.

"We're not gonna...hah...give up...hah...until we've tried everything we can!" Sean declared. "Come on! We can do this!"

 **CLIFFHANGER!**

 **Ooooooooooh don't you guys just hate me?**

 **We're reaching the climax of the Green Shard Arc you guys! Just one more chapter to go! Are you pumped? Did you enjoy those battles!?**

 **Now then, serious for a moment. A few things regarding OC's have come to my attention which I would like to address. Firstly, yes, I have decided to give OC cameos, you are free to submit those as you wish.**

 **Secondly, and this one is more important. My friend Ckbrothers pointed out a very important point to me in his Undertale SYOC (There are still some spaces open if you wanna check him out), and that is, if your gonna submit an OC, then why would you stop reading the story?**

 **And this got me thinking...what if the people I've chosen aren't reading anymore? And that's when I had this brilliant idea!**

 **HEY! YOU 10! That's right, the 10 OC creators I chose! This is very important for you guys so listen up! You need to prove to me that you are still reading this story!**

 **This is actually very simple, just prove your still reading. Leave a review, PM me (if you could, like send that message with your OC form PM, that would be incredibly helpful...I've, uh, lost your submissions in the mess that is my Inbox. Hey, I DID warn you guys about this.), maybe we could have a nice little chat.**

 **Until you do that, you guys are officially in DANGER. If you do not prove that you are reading Quest Life, you will be REMOVED from the Top 10 chosen OC's, simple as that. Of course, for those of you wanting to get an OC in, this is a possible second chance for you! But, you know my HIGH standards by now, so, pleeeeeease make sure its detailed, thank you. And for you 10, as soon as you prove yourselves faithful readers, you shall be safe once again.**

 **Now that all that negative stuff is out of the way, it's time for QOTC!**

 **QOTC: Who is your favourite Pokemon and why?**

 **Mine is Gliscor, because he just looks so cool and awesome!**

 **One last thing, I'm planning to release a special christmas story for ALL of my readers on Christmas Day, so be sure to look out for that!**

 **Now then, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll see you guys next chapter! Merry Christmas!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Green Key Shard! 

**Battle List:**

 **Elin (Lose) vs. 'Nature's Knight' Grovyle (Win) Round 1**

 **Sean, Sarah, Kiera and Luke vs. 'Harmonia's Guardian' Torterra (TBD)**

 **Elin vs. 'Nature's Knight' Grovyle Round 2 (TBD)**

I felt myself get hit again as I could only endure the relentless and unpredicatble Quick Attack's, there was no way I could tell where he was going to attack from next! I felt myself get launched into the air, only to get slammed back into the ground again, hard!

I groaned in pain as I stood up, only for the process to begin again. "Is this all you can do, Pawniard?" Grovyle's voice echoed around me. "Didn't you say you wouldn't lose this time!?" I...I think I'm blacking out... "Or is this really all you can do!?"

As I was hit again, my eyes narrowed in anger. Because I just realised that I was sick of this! "No! I'm not defeated yet!" Things seemed to slow down...he was coming in from the left! "Feint Attack!" I disappeared then reappeared above him as he looked up at me in shock. "I haven't achieved my current potential yet!" I clenched my blade and punched him in the face as hard as possible, slamming him into the ground as I shakily stood in front of the Grass-Type. "I'm...gonna beat you!"

Grovyle's eyes were shadowed as he just lay there for a minute...then I saw him smirk with the reed clenched inbetween his teeth. "You got me..." He stood up and shook his head. "This is really interesting! Let's see how else you deal with me!" Suddenly, he jumped up right to the top of the leafy dome. "Bullet Seed!" He began spitting a rain of green seeds down towards me!

"Scratch!" I slashed repeatedly above my head to stop the storm of seeds, but I tired and had to stop, letting them pepper my helmet and body. "Arrrrgggh! I'm not dealing with this again!" Acting purely on rash instinct, I charged straight at the wall, and ran up it! Holy shit, I was running up a wall like a ninja! That's awesome! Anyway, I ran up until I was across from Grovyle, suspended in the air by the force of his own attack. I jumped straight towards him from the tree and slashed, but he spun away and back to the ground!

"Energy Ball!" Grovyle threw the attack up towards me, but I slashed with all my might, and cleanly cut the move in half! "Quick Attack!" He was shooting straight towards me!

"Scratch!" I swung my arm as hard and as fast as possible, hitting him straight in the chest and throwing him to the ground in an explosion as I also landed. "That was close...but..." I looked at my blade, which seemed to be glowing...silver? "Was that really Scratch?"

"That was Metal Claw." I refocused as Grovyle stood up out of the smoke. "To think you would learn a new attack so instantly, in the midst of battle..." He laughed. "Your really a great opponent!" He held his arm out as the leaves on it glowed green and formed into a blade. "Leaf Blade!"

"Metal Claw!" We clashed with our moves, the air around us resonating with power as we both held on, neither of us letting up for even a second. Eventually, the clash was broken, and we were both sent tumbling back, quickly scrambling to our feet.

"Wow...I'm hurting...been awhile." Grovyle coughed.

"You sound like your enjoying yourself." I huffed.

"I am!" He said with a grin. "I've never felt this passionate about a battle before! And I think it's because of you, kid! Fighting you just gets my heart pumping and my mind racing! I don't want to ever stop battling you!"

I couldn't help but smile. "Heh...your a really cool opponent, I'll admit that. And I have a lot to thank you for! I've discovered my limitations...now I want to reach the top of my potential, and surpass it!"

"Then you'd better hit me with everything you've got!" Grovyle smirked as both his blades appeared, and mine glowed green.

"Fury Cutter!" We both cried as we dashed forward, and clashed once again.

 _Quest Life_

"Gah!" Kiera gasped as she was knocked back by the attack.

"Seed Bomb!" Torterra shook from side to side, launching giant seeds from his tree everywhere.

"Vine Whip!" Sean's vines extended and knocked the attack away from the group, the explosions shaking the area behind Torterra as the fire light illuminated his stoic glare.

"Quick Attack!" Luke sped towards the left side of the wall and quickly rebounded off, shooting at Torterra from his right side.

"Is that your plan?" The giant Pokemon asked as its eye looked directly at Luke, and its tree leaves began to glow. "Leaf Storm!"

"Tackle!" Sarah jumped into the air and tackled Luke out of the way of the powerful attack, barely saving the both of them.

"Hey! Over here!" Sean said as he Vine Whipped the Torterra's face, only serving to gain his attention.

"Annoying." He stated. "Giga Drain!" The three tendrils of green energy extended towards him.

"Go, Kiera!" The Snivy waved as he grabbed onto the key Pokemon, who took off around the room, swerving and dodging as the attack chased after them.

"Attract!" Pink hearts surrounded Torterra as Sarah threw them at him.

"Protect!" He was forced to cancel his Giga Drain to protect himself.

"Now!" Sean cried as Kiera threw him just before the shield disappeared.

"Bite!" "Doubleslap!" Luke bit down on Torterra's tail as Sarah slapped his back with her tail.

"Fairy Wind!" "Leaf Tornado!" Kiera and Sean's attacks crossed over each other and collided into the opponents face.

The teram regrouped, most of them panting heavily, and looking very tired. "Hah...hah...did we...hah...do it?" Luke panted.

Unfortunately, the smoke cleared, and Torterra looked only mildly harmed. "This is pointless. You all cannot stand for much longer, let alone fight. You cannot continue like this."

"We'll...hah...decide when we...hah...can no longer fight!" Sean said.

"Are you sure your speaking for everyone?" Torterra inquired. "Your teammates look more exhausted then you."

Sean winced, knowing it was true. Keira waas wobbling in an attempt to keep floating, and Luke was full on laying down, tongue lolling out as he panted, with Sarah's ears and tail drooping, it was looking very bad.

"If you won't surrender, I will defeat you!" Torterra told them as his tree began to glow.

'That next attack is Leaf Storm...' Sean thought. 'Perhaps...if I can have Sarah use that move straight after...it's all I've got right now!'

"Leaf Storm!" Everybody used the last of their energy to throw themselves out of the way of the attack.

"Sarah! Use Copycat, now!" Sean called.

"Hah...huh? Hah...okay...Copycat!" She breathed before launching a storm of green leaves.

"Leaf Tornado!" Sean threw a twister of green leaves from his tail, the two attacks merging together and growing in strength as they engulfed Torterra.

"Ngh!" Torterra grunted as he stood his ground against the force of the attack.

"Come on! Come oooooooooooooooooooooon!" Sean cried as the combined attack continued to grow in size and power.

"Gah!" Torterra gasped as the attack lifted him up off of the ground!

"Haaaaaaaaaaaah!" Using all that he had, Sean redirected the attack upward, and Torterra was thrown skyward, crashing into the roof of the room before quickly falling back down and crashing into the floor, sending debris smoke sweeping across the room.

Sean fell to his hands and knees, taking big gulps of air to try and regain his stamina, whilst the other members of the team had completely collapsed from exhaustion. When he had finally calmed down a bit, he looked up to see Torterra, standing up from his side, a crater underneath him, and his tree missing many leaves.

"Well...that was unexpected." He grunted, clearly having taken some damage.

"Alright...proper damage." Sean could barely manage a small smile. "That's a huge step. So...just a little more..."

Torterra stared at the fellow Grass-Type. "Your still on about this? Frankly, I don't want to fight you anymore."

"I can't give up..." Sean said. "I...won't..."

Torterra snorted. "Your either recklessly stubborn, or stupidly tenacious. This battle was decided the moment it began." The final evolution stood its ground. "At your current Levels, all of you combined couldn't defeat me! Allow me to show you your limitations! Synthesis!"

Sean's eyes widened in shock as Torterra glowed brightly from the sunlight pouring in, his leaves being replaced, and all damage the group had worked so hard to achieve was erased instantly. In the blink of an eye, the battle was over.

Torterra slowly walked towards Sean, until they were face to face, the Snivy frozen to the spot. "So then..." The tortoise Pokemon spoke. "Do you want to continue?"

Sean leaned his head down, it was painfully obvious what the situation was, but it still really, really sucked. "We..." He swallowed his tactical pride. "We lose..."

Torterra nodded. "It takes Guts for a Pokemon to admit when their beaten. Your alright." Sean grit his teeth in frustration, and breathed a heavy sigh. "Here, I'll get some berries to heal your friends.

 _Quest Life_

Our right blades clashed with a strong resolve as we swung with our other blades, stopping each other again. We broke aparat, and he went for a curving slash, so I ducked then stabbed upwards, but he leaned his head to avoid it, then I slashed with my other arm, but he jumped over it! He went for a downward slash, but I blocked it by crossing my blades, then uncrossing them to throw him off.

Everything was a blur, a mix of pure battle instinct and detection of the opponent to counter and look for openings. I threw my whole body into a powerful slash, but he endured it by crossing his blades in front of himself. He then caught me off guard and swung a blade into my chest. I gasped as the attack launched me into the air, where I was then assaulted by a series of slashes from every direction.

This one trick Ponyta wouldn't work on me anymore though, and as soon as I detected him, I slashed him across the face with a Fury Cutter, sending him flying to the other side of the tree. I landed on my feet as he launched himself towards me at an incredible speed.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" We began slashing at each other as fast as possible, the clashing ringing out across the tree as we continuosly slashed at each other, parrying every attempt, launching from every angle, refusing to show an y sign of weakness against our admirable opponent. We swung with all our might, and our blades clashed in a blast of energy, sending us both skidding back. We panted heavily, my body was beginning to feel heavy, and my muscles were aching. I'm sure that Grovyle felt the exact same way, given that we were both covered in injuries.

"Hah...haha...Haaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Suddenly, a green energy erupted out of his body, and I could feel his power increase as he gained an emerald green aura, and the leaves on his wrist glowed. "Overgrow..." He said, looking at his own claw. "When was the last time this activated?...That doesn't matter. It just means now, I'm on my last legs."

He gave that same smirk at me. "Shame...I wanted to keep fighting a little longer...but it looks like we've gotta decide an outcome." He held his arm out, as the leaves grew into a glowing blade twice as big as the previous one. "Let's go."

I narrowed my eyes as I held my arm out, my blade glowing and extending as we faced each other, waiting for the other to react. Until, at eaxctly the same time, we charged at each other, skimming across the grass and flowers at amazing speeds.

"LEAF BLADE!"

"METAL CLAW!"

We swung our attacks at each other, then skidded past, freezing in our stnaces as a tremendous slashing shockwave ripped apart the air mere inches from our faces, petals and grass blades scattering from the pure force of the airwave caused by the attack.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then I felt a sharp and powerful pain slash my left side, and I gasped as I fell to my blades and knees, coughing from the force of the impact.

"Gack..." I breathed painfully, sweat dripping down my helmet. "G-Grovyle...you win..."

Another pause. "No..." He spoke. "You win." Then, he silently collapsed, with swirls for eyes.

I let myself collapse to the ground, swallowing air as I endured the pain until it faded away into a numbing ache, before even attempting to stand up. I carefully walked over to grovyle, as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Hey..." I breathed as I held a blade out.

"Hey..." Grovyle replied as he accepted the gesture, and I helped him to his feet. "Looks like I lost...ah, well, it doesn't matter to me." He reached down and picked up his reed, placing it back in his mouth. "That was a magnificent battle. Congratulations, Elin."

"Thank you, Grovyle." I nodded.

He stepped aside, revealing the Green Shard entwined with the tree behind him. "A deal's a deal. You may take the shard." I breathed deeply as I took slow steady steps towards it, the object of our journey right in front of us, within arms reach.

"Oh no you don't!" Suddenly, three green tendrils of energy erupted from the grou nd around me, and I jumped back before they could grab me. "You may agree with this, Grovyle, but I will not!" We spun around as Torterra climbed up into the area behind us.

"Old Mon!" Grovyle grunted. "Stay out of this! This is my decision!"

"It's not yours to make!" Torterra rebuffed. "You know how much we depend on the Green Shard!"

"Everybody stop for a second!" Suddenly, Kiera, Sarah, Luke and Sean appeared behind him.

"Guys! Are you all okay!?" I called to them.

"We're fine, now!" Kiera replied. "But, Elin, listen! There's something you need to know about the Green Shard!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"I will answer that." Torterra spoke as he stepped forward. "Thousands of years ago, the ground we currently stand on was known as Sunnia Castle, where the ancestors of that town used to live."

"Wait...this place was Sunnia?" I thought aloud.

"Correct." Torterra nodded.

"Wow! If you know that, does that mean your thousands of years old?" Luke asked.

"I'm not THAT old!" Torterra ranted. "The story of how Harmonia came to be was passed down by my ancestors."

"So then, how did Harmonia get here?" I questioned.

"One day, the Green Shard came crashing through the ceiling, and landed right in the middle of the hall." Torterra continued. "From there, Harmonia instantly grew at a rapid rate, forcing the inhabitants to flee. The only ones who remained were my ancestors, who named the tree Harmonia, and chose to live with and protect it, such as been my families, and is now my, duty."

"Elin, the Green Shard caused Harmonia to grow, so...it can be assumed that if it is removed, the tree will wither." Sean sadly said.

"I will not allow that to happen." Torterra said. "And I am not speaking just on my behalf." Just then, all sorts of Grass-Types appeared and stood behind Torterra, some of tehm were even grouped together into families. "Many Pokemon have come and settled here. This is their home. I will not allow them to become homeless! And you, Grovyle! You would place Harmonia at risk, for the sake of one Pawniard!?"

"I understand the potential consequences!" Grovyle said. "If it messed up, I would take the blame! You could kill me for all I care! But at least I would be honouring the wish of the only opponent I've ever faced that I have come to respect!"

"Grovyle..." I breathed.

"Foolish hatchling." Torterra muttered. "Step away from the shard, Pawniard!"

I stood motionless as the choice was given to me, the internal struggle quickly becoming one-sided. Would I really endanger all of these Pokemon just to bring back a piece of a puzzle I played no part in?...No, I couldn't.

I took a deep breath to give my answer, when I heard something.

What was that? It felt...like a breath of wind...a noise? A voice? I didn't understand it...was it trying to tell me something?

I tried to discern where it was coming from, and I could only pinpoint one location.

The Green Shard behind me.

...Stupid instincts.

Before anybody could react, I jumped over and slashed the roots holding the Key Shard, letting it fall into my arms.

"NO!" Torterra screamed, as Harmonia began to shake violently. "What have you done!?"

"Elin! Why did you do that!?" Sarah cried as she was tumbling around from the shaking.

"Just hold on!" I cried, sounding too desperate.

"Ahhhhh!" Luke shouted as he was sent flying out of the leafy dome entirely.

"You little-!" Torterra growled. "I'll-!" Suddenly, the shaking stopped. "...What?"

I allowed myself to breath again before looking around...nothing seemed to have changed. Un til, I noticed a pink petal, fall next to my feet. I looked up, and my eyes widened. "Wow..."

Slowly, ever so slowly, beautiful pink flowers were blooming all over Harmonia's head, bathing us all in a soft peachy light as the light of the setting sun reflected off of them.

"This is..." Torterra breathed, but he couldn't finish his sentence.

"Guys! Guys!" We heard Luke call. "Please, you HAVE to come out and see this!"

We carefully climbed down and went outside, to see Luke staring upwards with large sparkling eyes, his tail wagging frantically. We turned around and marvelled at the sight of Harmonia, covered in shining pink flowers with the backdrop of the orange evening sky.

"It's so pretty!" Sarah squealed.

"Incredible..." Kiera smiled.

"Hmmm..." Sean thought. "Maybe...the Green Hsrad DID cause Harmonia to grow...but afterwards, it was only holding it back this whole time. Removing it allowed Harmonia to show us its true beauty."

"Looks like you owe me an apology, Old Mon." Grovyle smirked.

"Don't push it." Torterra chuckled heartily.

I, meanwhile, looked down at the Green Shard, wondering just what kind of power it held. Deciding to ignore it for the meantime, I placed it into my Hammerspace and also admired the view.

 _Quest Life_

It was night time now, and the sky was filled with stars, Harmonia's flowers giving off a pink glow, as the residents stood before us.

"I suppose I should thank you for this..." Torterra said. "Still though, I found it a bit reckless. But we are still grateful. You may take the Green Shard and do with it what you wish."

"Thank you, Torterra." Kiera nodded.

"Hey, Elin." Grovyle said. "Think I might try and travel a little, explore the world a bit. So, if you ever see me, give a shout. Maybe we could battle again sometime."

"It's a deal." I agreed, and we shook on it.

"It's a long way back on foot, especially when its dark." Torterra mused. "Luckily for you, some thankful inhabitants would like to give you a lift." As he said that, several Jumpluff bounced forward, assigning themselves to us, two each. "May your travels be safe, and you are free to visit anytime."

So, in no time at all, we found ourselves waving goodbye as we were carried across the winds by Jumpluff, the pink glow of Harmonia shining behind us.

"Hey, Elin." Sean got my attention. "You do realise this travel will make us skip over the Vault Mines, right?"...Crap, I forgot about that.

"Oh...well...don't worry about it, they were only a small group anyway." I waved it off, yet still secretly fearing.

"If you say so..." I could feel the Snivy staring right at me.

So, in my first day in this world, I fought several battles, instigated a giant quest upon myself, went on a minecart ride, climbed a giant tree, and got carried under the night sky by Jumpluff.

This was gonna be good.

 **Happy Boxing Day everybody!**

 **Yes, I decided to give you guys an extra chapter, because I'm feeling generous. And this concludes the Green Shard Arc! I hope you guys enjoyed it!**

 **Also, I am pleased to say that all 10 chosen have proven that their still reading. I didn't doubt you guys, but I just wanted to make sure and play it safe. To the rest of you, you are still free to submit OC's, because the really excellent ones are taken into consideration.**

 **QOTC: What is your favourite moment from any Pokemon game and why?**

 **Now then, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll see you next chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: New Tennants, New Location

 **Battle Record**

 **Elin Ray: Wins: 5 Losses: 1**

 **Sarah Mia: Wins: 3 Losses: 1**

 **Luke Thomas: Wins: 1 Losses: 1**

 **Sean 'Andre' Garrison: Wins: 1 Losses: 1**

The room was dark, as it always was. The circular, confined area had only a red and dark purple glass mural on the floor in the centre, in a mix of violent colours clashing against one another in an oddly harmonic yet chaotic dance. It was the perfect place to...think...to contemplate. And that's why the dark figure sat on his throne, eye closed in deep thought.

"My lord..." InCo floated into the room, hesitating before the throne which had its back to him. "Have you felt it?"

"You doubt my vision?" He replied. "It is obvious. One of the Shards has been claimed."

"This presents opposition, my lord." InCo continued. "If somebody else is also after the Shards then-"

"One loss is not important at this point in time." The figure interrupted him. "Should the matter grow, I shall deal with it personally. But, in the meantime, it is illogical to do anything rash or provocative." The figure floated off of his chair, with his hands behind his back. "Tell the Don to hasten and broaden the search. In person."

"At once, my lord." InCo nodded, before a dark purple portal opened up next to him, which he flew into before it disappeared.

Meanwhile, the figure opened his eye. "So...we have competition." His eye turned up in a smirk. "How interesting..."

 _Quest Life_

This world looked really beautiful at night.

For one thing, the sky was full of stars, and a moon hung like a shining sphere in a sea of dark, at least the sky hadn't changed. From my vantage point of hanging in the sky via Jumpluff, I could attempt to make out several areas in this world, though it wasn't easy in the dark. I was able to make out a forest, a port, some mountains, and a bright light far off in the distance.

"Look! There's Oreace!" Kiera pointed at the town, lit by faint, warm light.

"Alright, you guys can drop us off at my house." I told the Jumpluff.

"You have your own house?" Luke marvelled.

"Yeah, I guess I was pretty lucky when I got i-" Just ehn, I was beginning to lower, and I looked up to see the Jumpluff carrying me struggling. "Hey, are you guys okay?"

"Y-Your pretty heavy..." They admitted.

"It's because your made out of metal." Sean pointed out.

"Steel." I corrected him, as the Jumpluff began to drop faster. "Okay, okay, you can drop me off at the entrance. The rest of you guys just go to my house, it's pretty much unlocked."

"Are you sure?" Sarah asked.

"I'll be fine. See you in a bit." I assdured her as the Jumpluff let themselves drop (a bit too fast for my liking) towards the entrance of the town, until my feet were on solid ground again. "Phew, that was close. Sorry about that, guys."

"N-No problem." The Jumpluff breathed a sigh of relief. "A-Anyway, thank you so much. Come and visit again sometime!" The three of them then floated back on tyhe winds, and I waved them off.

"Man, I'm tired..." I thought aloud as I walked through the entrance, the whole street in front of me leading to the square lit up either side by streetlamps. "This has been a LONG day...but to be fair, something like this doesn't happen to you ofte-"

I suddenly froze, as if my gut feeling just told me something really bad was coming. I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there on high alert.

Then, a figure emerged from the dark alleyway. He was covered completely by a small brown cloak, and the only thing I could make out was two misshapen eyes peering out of the darkness of his hood.

He instantly noticed me, and for a minute we just stood there, staring at each other. During this time, my brain was working overtime to decide what to do in this situation. Attack? Run? Just what kind of vibe exactly was I getting from this mysterious figure? It seemed to be danger...but, also...something else. Eventually, he broke the silence:

"Your not from around here, are you?"

I admit I didn't expect that question, but I answered nonetheless. "Oh, er, I'm a Quester, I just got back from a journey."

"I see." He nodded. "Forgive me, I am just passing through. I wish you a pleasant evening." He walked past me, and as I turned to watch him, he paused. "If it's not too bold of me...may I ask your name?"

"My name?" I echoed. "It's Elin. Elin Ray."

"Elin Ray...I'll remember that name." He said. "You may call me InCo. I hope we meet again." And with that, he continued walking away into the night.

I didn't know how to feel about that chance encounter. Disturbed might be a possible word, there was just something about him that didn't feel right...ugh. I was too tired. I needed to go to sleep.

I made my way back to my house, where I saw Sean standing outside the door. "There you are." He said upon seeing me. "Everybody else has already made themselves comfortbale. You okay?"

"Yeah. Better once I get some sleep, though." I admitted, deciding not to tell him about my run-in with the robed weirdo 'InCo'.

"I hear that." Sean laughed. "...Listen, Elin. I never got to thank you properly for helping us back there at the castle... _Merci_."

"Huh? You speak French?" I asked.

He suppressed a laugh. "I AM French. But close enough." I facepalmed at my own ignorance whilst we went in. I carefully sneaked around, trying to not bump into anyone or anything, before flopping onto the first comfy thing I could find.

I suppose at this moment I was supposed to have some kind of major internal questioning, debate or struggle about what would happen once this was all over, what things were like back home right now...

Nope. Straight to sleep.

 _Quest Life_

A bright light...sunlight...it was morning...Wait...oh yeah, all of that really happened yesterday...wow.

I slumped to the left, only to come face to face with a black hole in a rock.

"What the-!?" I jumped up in shock, only then to realise it was a Roggenrola.

"Oh, morning!" It greeted me as it sat up. "You must be Elin!"

"Yeah, who are...you..." I had only just looked around...was this really the same house?

It was clean now, a little glass encased the previously bare lightbulb, there was a tiny little wooden table with two matching chairs, a red carpet underneath it, and a soft looking bed upon which Luke and Sarah were curled up, sleeping.

"Did I walk into the wrong house?" I wondered aloud.

"Huh? That Audino and scary Conkelldurr said that this was your house." Roggenrola said.

"Okay, back to you." I changed the subject "What are you doing here?"

"I came looking for the Snivy with your group!" He said.

"Snivy? You mean Sean?"

"Did somebody page me?" Said Snivy said. I looked over to him doing...pull-ups with his vines from the rafters...how long had he been awake?

"Ah! It's really you!" The Roggenrola cried as it skipped over to him. Welp, now I can say I've seen a boulder skip.

"Hold on...aren't you that Roggenrola I fought?" Sean asked.

"Yes! Yes! That's me!" Roggenrola nodded, overjoyed he was remembered. "I went looking for you, and I remembered you were with that Pawniard, so I asked around about him! So here I am! I wanted to thank you so much for helping me! I promise I want to become a better Pokemon and be a Quester like you!" I could practically feel the worship to Sean emanating off of the Rock-Type.

Sean shifted in place for a bit at the revelation, but quickly got over it. "Well, I'm...glad you fell that way. I suppose I could help you if that's what you wanted. Just, don't go calling me 'seanpai' or anything, okay? This'll be...a mutual agreement."

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Roggenrola bounded up and down ecstatically. "I'll do my very best!"

"Well, uh, this just happened to me." Sean stated as he walked over to me. "By the way, I like your house, Elin."

"Yeeeeaaaah...to be honest, it was a lot worse." I admitted. "Wonder what happened?"

"Maybe this 'Professor Rotom' you told me about knows?" Sean suggested. "Kiera stayed at his Lab last night."

"Oh, right! The Professor! I have to tell him we're back!" I realised, deciding to leave Luke and Sarah to sleep a little longer. As I opened the door, I came face to face with a familiar face. "Oh! Grace!"

"Elin, your back." She smiled. "I hope you like the way I designed your house."

"Wait, you did all this?" I asked.

"Well, I just thought that you'd like to come home to a nice clean house, so I spruced it up a bit." She beamed.

"Wow, that's really kind of you. Thank you, Grace!" I said. "Oh, uh, this is-"

"Sean." He nodded. "It's very nice to meet you, and the house is very nice."

"Why, thank you." Grace nodded. "Oh yes, Elin, since your back you might want to go see the Professor."

"Already on it." I nodded. "See you in a bit." I jogged over to the Lab, leaving Sean and Grace together as I knocked on the door. "Proefessor Doctor Rotom? Hello?"

"Elin!" I jumped back in shock as a Frost Rotom blocked the whole doorway. "Kiera has filled me in on the details! Please, come in! Come in!"

"Um, I'd like to, but..." I gestured to the doorway.

"Ah! Right, right." He jumped out of the way and quickly reappeared in the doorway in his normal form, adjusting his glasses. "Now then, let's analyse this."

I shuffled into the Lab to see Kiera and Hoopa eating a bagel. "Yo, Elin! Good to see you so soon!" Hoopa greeted me.

"You too, Hoopa." I chuckled.

"Elin, may I see the Shard you acquired?" Rotom requested.

I reached into my Hammerspace and pulled out the Green Shard, handing it to him. "Fascinating..." He whispered, floating over to a microscope and looking through it. "Incredible, I've never seen a specimen like this before...it's in a category all of its own! This is undoubtedly a Shard.

"Good show, prof. You LOOked at it." Hoopa laughed.

"Oh, be quiet, Hoopa." Kiera sighed.

"Elin, let us go and return the Shard to its rightful place; in the Clock Tower." Rotom said.

"Right." I agreed as we both walked out.

"Eliiiin!" The rest of our group hurried over as Luke's tail wagged. "Dude, nice house!"

"Thanks, but that's mostly due to Grace." The Glaceon accepted the compliment.

"I especially like your roommates." Luke looked like he was trying to suppress alughter, and I instantly realised he knew something.

"What roommates?" I pressed.

"Roggenrola, for one." Sean nodded. "But, also...have you checked your roof?"

"My roof?" I echoed, looking up, then I realised it.

There was a nest sitting on top of my house, and a Starly was attending to it as if it was his magnum opus.

"Ya gonna make him pay rent?" Luke snickered.

"I think he's working reeeeeeally hard on that nest." Sarah observed.

"Hey! Excuse me!" The Starly turned towards me. "Um, that's my house your building your nest on."

"Oh, really? Your house is a very nice place, very comfortable and balanced. " The Starly said. "Sorry for coming here uninvited, but it just looked so comfy!"

I assessed the situation as best I could. Technically he wasn't IN the house, more on top of it. Plus, if he was a bird, then couldn't he go off and like, get his own food? So I guess it was alright for him to stay.

"Okay, you can stay up there and build your nest." I told him.

"Really!?" He flew from his nest and down in front of me, being pretty small as a basic bird. "Gee, that's kind of you! I promise I won't be a burden, and I'll help out however I can!" He held out a wing. "The name's Starrie, pleased to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Elin Ray." We shook blade and wing.

"Ask him if he can Fly us to our previous destinations." Luke whispered.

"We're going to head to the Clock Tower." Rotom interrupted.

"I was going to take everybody to the cafe." Grace said.

"Oh, if your going there, then you might need these..." I emptied my Hammerspace oif Up Ingredients, dumping a load of Dagger Carrots, Energrapes, a herb of some kind, at their feet.

"Arceus, Elin! How much did you pick up!?" Luke gasped.

"I'm a collectomaniac in RPG's." I admitted.

"This is so much Up stuff!" Sarah said, trying and failing to pick all of it up.

"Right then, no more delays, off to the Clock Tower!" Rotom announced befroe dragging me along.

"So long, guys!" Hoopa waved as he finished off his bagel.

"Woah! A legendary!" Luke gasped.

"Yo, I'm Hoopa!" He greeted them.

"Hey, um...guys?" Everybody looked at Kiera as she gestured to a pair of performers in Oreace Square. "Do they look...familiar to you?" Sarah and Luke looked over and gaped.

A Meowth and a Purrloin were doing magic tricks together.

"Please, hold your a-PAWS." The Meowth joked, VERY FAMILIARLY. "As now, I shall evolve a Caterpie, into a Butterfree!" The Purrloin presented the little Caterpie for the Meowth, who quickly covered it with a blanket, did an overexaggerated waiting monologue, then pull the blanket off to reveal a Butterfree who flew away, to the clapping of the crowd. "Thank you, thank you. We'll be here every Pay-Day!"

And as the two of them accepted the coins tossed, they finally noticed the group, and they looked like they were shitting Onix's whilst screaming silently.

"Mph!" Luke and Sarah were suddenly glomped by the cats.

"What are you guys doing here!?" Meob hissed.

"It IS you two!" Sarah gasped.

"This is LITERALLY the worst luck!" Purrloe panicked.

"Why on earth are you two here!?" Kiera asked.

"Okay, I'll admit, we came here looking for the Don." Meob said. "But we came here and couldn't find him, so we decided to make our own money here. Listen, I understand what we did was wrong-"

"You tried to sell me." Luke stated.

"-But we're just trying to earn a decent living now!...Until we find the Don." Purrloe added.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease don't Rattata on us! PURR-ty Please!?" The two cats begged on their paws and knees.

"I dunno..." Kiera said.

"I forgive them. Plus, that was a nice pun." Luke nodded.

"If Luke forgives them, I forgive them." Sarah agreed.

"Oh my Arceus thank you!" Meob sighed in relief.

"We promise not to get in your way." Purrloe nodded.

"I...don't really understand the situation." Grace admitted.

"Don't worry, I don't either." Sean mumbled.

Meanwhile, me and Rotom were at the top of the Clock Tower.

"How am I supposed to get it up there?" I asked, gesturing to the empty slot at the top of the clock face, whilst I held the Green Shard. "Can't you do it?"

"It has to be you!" Rotom insisted. "Your...the chosen one, or something."

"I thought you were a Pokemon of science!"

"Professor means ancient hocus-pocus too!"

"I don't see how-woah!" As I held the Green Shard up, I suddenly felt a pull, and let the Shard go from it, making the Shard pull towards the empty slot like a magnet, fitting in perfectly and making the whole clock face glow green.

"Elin! Take out the Clock Compass!" I did as he said, to see the hand spinning around wildly, before finally setting itself in a new direction. "The location of the next Key Shard has been revealed!"

"Alright, let's go find everybody." I said.

We made our way back to Oreace Square and were just going to make a right to the cafe when we heard a familiar voice. "Ah! Elin!"

"Aria!" I recognised the Audino as she walked over.

"How have you been doing?" She asked.

"I'm alright, thank you for asking." I nodded. "How are you?"

"Business is booming!" She happily replied. "I just came to tell you about our services, after all, it's how Grace spruced up your home."

"That was a really nice surprise." I smiled. "So, I could buy stuff too?"

"Oh yes!" She nodded. "Make it your own little home! Just pop into Housing Management whenever and you can buy any furniture which suits yours or others needs! Although, maybe you'll be away from home far too long to think about that, eh, Mr. Quester?"

"Oh, um, thanks." I tugged at my Swift Scarf.

"I'd keep it in mind, Elin." Rotom advised. "You have a few tenants now, and I'm sure they'd appreciate a nice place to stay, even whilst your away."

"Fair point." I nodded. "Hopefully if I have any leftover money I can buy some stuff. After all, I, pretty much raided the Forgotten Castle."

"Speaking of being a Quester, Elin..." Aria continued. "Have you thought about giving yourself a Title?"

"A Title?" I echoed.

"ALL the best Quester's have Titles." Aria explained. "Plus, it'll be really cool if you get a lot of good reputation, people might get to know about you."

"Title, huh?" I pondered for a moment. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. I'll have to think on it, though."

"I wish you luck, then! And remember, I'm just a few doors away! And so Aria skipped off back to work.

"Title, Title..." I continued to think. "I've gotta think of a cool one."

"For the moment though, let's head to the cafe." Rotom prompted me as we moved along.

We entered the cafe to a very quaint little feeling, wooden furniture and little flowerpots in the window, my friends devouring food on that table over there...let's focus on that last aspect.

We walked over to find Luke and Sarah heartily tucking in as Sean and Grace ate much more calmly.

"Seeeeean! Your hogging all the Speed Soup!" Sarah whined.

"I kind of need Speed for my evasiveness." Sean reasoned, handing Grace a plate of stuffed Shield Shrooms, which she thanked him for kindly. "Oh, Elin! Here, we saved you an Attack Kieche, a HP Pasta and one...no, half of a Stuffed Shield Shroom.

"Hey, thanks, guys." I said as I sat down. The good thing about having blades for hands is that they make excellent cutlery.

"So, did it work?" Grace asked.

"It did." Rotom confirmed as I placed the Clock Compass on the table. "I'm going to try and see which way it's pointing..." He pulled a map out of his Hammerspace and studied it as we continued to eat. "Hmmmm...ah! It seems to be pointing towards the Psychic Sands!"

"What kind of place is it?" Luke asked.

"A desert. But believe me, you have to see it for yourself!" Rotom grinned as he put his map away. "If you continue going at this rate, you'll find all of the Shards in no time!"

"And how are you doing on getting us home?" Sean asked.

"Ah..." Rotom said nervously.

"No progress!" Hoopa called from a different table, before taking a bite out of his burger...which for some reason had a hole in the middle.

"B-B-But I promise I'll get it! Yes!" He hurriedly replied. "In the meantime, you all can keep collecting the Key Shards, which will allow you to look for more humans at the same time!"

"It's better then just sitting around and doing nothing!" Sarah agreed.

"Exactly!" Rotom cried.

I finished off the last of my pasta before speaking. "Well, I'm ready whenever you guys are."

"If we're going to set off again, we should probably buy some new Gear whilst we can." Sean pointed out.

"Alright! Battle plan!" Luke nodded as we all finished off our meals.

"Man, Up Ingredient Meals are the best." Kiera nodded. "I can feel myself getting stronger already!"

"Thank you very much for the meal, Pouren." Grace thanked the Panpour wearing a chef's hat, and an apron that said 'Use Sweet Kiss on the cook'

"Anything and anytime for the lovely Miss Grace and her friends." The Pouren bowed. "Stay safe, and stay full!"

Now that we knew what we were doing, we headed over to Searen's Gear shop and started browsing to find an necessary preparations.

"Hey, um, do you have any balanced Gear?" I asked.

"Balanced?" He lowered his sunglasses. "I think I've got just the thing for you." He shuffled through the back, and pulled out a little bronze badge with two tiny wings on the side and a little basic three spike crown in the centre. "This Rookie Badge slightly boosts HP, Attack and Defence, but it only works on Base forms. Not good for me, yet for you, it works.

"I'll take it." I nodded, pinning the badge to the neck of my Swift Scarf.

Sarah bought some Stardust Sparkles which she sprinkled over her Bow, apparently they increase Defense and reduce damage from fire and Grass attacks. Shaun bought this cool red Battle Jacket tht covers his top half and has a white furry hood, that boosts his attack and defense strongly. And Sean wore a green Vine Sticker across the left side of his body that boosted his Grass-Type moves.

"Whooooo! We're all Geared up!" Sarah cheered.

"Off to the desert!" Luke yipped.

"Man, they sure are excited." I laughed.

"Sean? Are you okay?" Grace asked, and I turned to the two of them. Sean seemed okay...I think.

"...This is going to be difficult, Elin." Sean spoke calmly, but even I could tell he was suppressing something. "It's going to be a lot more dangerous then I thought...are we truly prepared for this?"

I looked at Sean, I guess Grace could see it but I couldn't. His loss to Torterra had affected him greater then I thought...

"Well then..." Going on instincts again. "Let's just get some more help." I then set off down East Oreace

"From who?" Sean called after me.

"From my tennates!"

"WHO!?"

 _Quest Life_

"I'm combat ready!" Roggenrola announced, a Big Gem, which boosted Defense and Special Defense, attached to his back, whilst jumping up and down excitedly.

"I'll be the eyes in the sky!" Starrie, a Talonflame Feather to boost Speed and Flying attacks attached to his tail, saluted with his wing.

"I feel like we're taking Level 1's on a Level 10 mission." Luke thought aloud.

"Good luck, you guys!" Minnie waved with a napkin from the Inn window.

"I'm gonna stick around this time and help out the Professor Doctor." Kiera told us. "And set Hoopa on a strict diet."

"Who?" The legendary asked with a worried look.

"Oh, tell me everything about the Psychic Sands!" Rotom pleaded. "Tell me about everyone you meet! Everything you see!"

"Why don't you just come with us?" Sarah suggested.

"Oh no...I'm too old...too weak..." Rotom croaked, struck with sudden oldness.

"Stay safe." Grace reminded us.

"I hope so." Sean nodded, making me nudge him.

"Bulk Up." I chuckled, making him give me a raised non-existent eyebrow.

"And we're off on the road again." Luke sang as our now expanded group started on our next journey.

"Wow, we sure started again quickly." Sean noticed.

"Must be the Pokemon side of us." I reasoned. "I'm quite enjoying it."

"I have to agree with you on that one." Sean chuckled as our group turned and headed off down a new path in the crossroad.

 **Ooooooooooh myyyyyyyyy Arceus! This was NOT supposed to take so long!**

 **I'm sorry for leaving you guys so long, I've been very busy, then there was a problem with Fanfiction. And admittedly, I've been a bit preoccupied writing a new RWBY Fanfiction. You guys should watch it, its a good anime...and maybe read that fanfic to-enough shameless advertising!**

 **I'd like to thank Kamico-chan for keeping up with Quest Life, and I promise your OC shall be appearing soon. Now that we've started this new Arc: The Yellow Shard Arc!**

 **One last thing, one of our new Questers, Starrie, is based off of Kecleon352's submitted OC! Thank you!**

 **And now, once more, I must bid you all adieu everybody. See you next Arc!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Shifting Twisting Sands

 **Current Location: Psychic Sands Entrance**

 **Questers: Elin (Swift Scarf and Rookie Badge), Sean (Leaf Neckerchief and Vine Sticker), Sarah (Cute Bow and Stardust Sparkles), Luke (Gangsta Glasses and Battle Jacket), Roggenrola (Big Gem), Starrie (Talonflame Feather)**

"Titles?" Sean repeated as our group trod along the grassy path (well, Starrie flew).

"Yeah. Apparently it makes it easier for Quester's to gain recognition." I told him.

"That's so cool!" Sarah cried. "I've gotta come up with a really good Title!"

"Do you think I'll ever get a Title?" Roggenrola asked hopefully.

"It can't be that hard if you've just got to think one up." Luke reasoned, before scrunching his face up in thought. "...Nope, I've got nothing."

As we continued walking, the grass was slowly replaced by barren land and rocks, until we were passing inbetween two canyons.

"I suppose we must be getting close to these Psychic Sands." Sean thought aloud.

"Guys! Guys!" We looked up as Starrie flew down in front of us, obviously in a flap about something (pun entirely intended).

"What's wrong, Starrie?" I questioned.

"I-I see the desert up ahead!" He exclaimed. "But your not gonna believe it! C'mon! This way!" He then flew on ahead of us.

"Starrie! Wait up!" I called after him before we gave chase.

Our group passed through and out of the trench, only to freeze in shock and awe at what we saw. A large desert stretched across our viewpoint, rocks and cactuses dotted all over the place. But the thing about this desert was...

the sand was purple. Bright, sparkling purple as far as the eye could see.

"...The sand is purple." I stated dumbly.

"Way to go, Shellos Holmes." Starrie sarcastically congratulated me.

"It's incredible..." Luke breathed with wide eyed fascination.

"It's delicious." Roggenrola said as he buried his face in the sand.

"Your eating it!?" Sean gasped.

"Yeah! I eat minerals!" Roggenrola reasoned. "This stuff is nice."

"It would take you your whole life to eat at most a quarter of this desert." The Snivy reasoned.

"It's so pretty! This place is amazing!" Sarah cheered as she playfully frolicked in the sand.

"Okay, okay, let's focus." I reminded them, pulling out the Clock Compass. "It says we have to keep going forward, so let us be on our way."

"Gotcha!" Luke saluted before we all headed off.

Our group journeyed across the desert, the footing being surprisingly stable as we walked onwards.

"This place is actually quite nice." I thought aloud, staring up at the sky. Back in Oreace it was a baby blue, but here in this desert it was a cobalt blue, with rainbow lights occasionally flickering. "Even the sky looks otherwordly."

"Its still unnatural." Sean reasoned.

"C'mon, man! It's gorgeous scenery! What's not to like?" Luke said.

"Sorry, I suppose I'm just a little on edge." He admitted.

"What do you mean, Sir?" Roggenrola asked.

"Well-please don't call me that-don't any of you think its somewhat strange that we haven't been attacked yet?" He asked us. "Technically, the Psychic Sands still counts as a Rogue Route, so Rogues should be along here, right?"

"But it's really really big! That must mean there's less chance we'll run into Rogues, right?" Sarah reasoned.

"Sarah does make a good point." I agreed. "Besides, I think we'd see any Rogues coming from a mile away." I gestured to the wide open space around us.

"The only other thing around here are these cactuses." Luke nodded to one.

"See? Nothing to..." I stopped as I looked at the cactus Luke pointed to. "...Wait..." I hurried over to it.

"Elin?" Starrie asked.

I stared at the cactus with narrowed eyes. 'This shape...' Tentatively, I bent down and poked the cactus with my blade.

As soon as I did, the cactus spun 180 and an angry face appeared on it, revealing the cactus to be a Maractus. "Did you just touch my ass!?" The female Grass type screeched.

"Wha-?" I gaped dumbly.

"Pervert!" She cried, smacking me across the face with a Needle Arm and sending me sprawling across the sands.

Everybody gasped as the two other cactuses popped up, turning out to be Cacnea.

"You bastard!" One of the Cacnea's screamed.

"What did you do to Miss Maria!?" The other shrieked.

"I didn't realise! I didn't realise!" I panicked.

"They were hiding all this time!?" Roggenrola cried.

"I was taking a nap!" Maria the Maractus cried. "And how did I get woken up? By some weirdo touching my butt!"

"How was I supposed to know!?" I defended myself.

"Your gonna get it now, punk!" The two Cacnea raged.

"So the Rogues of this route are in hiding?" Sean thought aloud.

"Rogues!? Who are you calling Rogues!?" The first Cacnea shouted.

"We're Questers!" The second Cacnes ranted. "I'm Cob, this is my partner Corn, and our leader here is the amazing Quester! The Dancing Flower! Maria!"

"Don't give away our names to these jerks!" Maria yelled at them.

"Sorry, Miss Maria!" Corn and Cob saluted.

"Wait, your not Rogues?" Luke asked in confusion.

"No!" Cob said. "Don't you know how Rogues work in the Psychic Sands!?"

"All of the Rogues are Ground-Type!" Corn huffed. "So, whenever they want to attack, they-"

He was interrupted as the ground began to shake, and a Sandshrew, Hippopotas, and Trapinch emerged ffom the sand.

"Alright! All of you freeze!" The Trapinch yelled.

"YOU freeze! There's more of us!" Starrie argued.

"Home advantage!" The Sandshrew shouted.

"Did you forget about US!?" Maria shouted.

"Looks like this turned into a three way battle." Sean observed.

"We'll just take 'em all down!" Luke rallied us.

"Enough talking!" The Hippopotas said. "Let's just fight!"

"Agreed!" We all declared before charging into battle.

"Wing Attack!"

"Needle Arm!"

Corn and Starrie clashed wing and arm, bouncing off of each other from the impact.

"Rollout!" The Sandshrew curled up into a ball and rolled towards Sean.

"Vine Whip." He stated as his vines extended out and stopped the opponent at a safe distance.

"...Er...can we talk about this?" The Sandshrew pleaded.

"Nope." Sean stated bluntly as he picked it up and slammed it into the ground.

"Pin Missile!" Cob launched a barrage of sharp needles, which Luke had to avoid by jumping left and right quickly.

"Bite!" Leaping forward, he bit down on the Cacnea's arm.

"OUCH!" The both of them cried, hopping away from each other.

"Yawn..." The Hippopotas yawned, blowing out a pink bubble.

"Ack! No way!" Sarah panicked. "Attract!" Surprisingly, the bubble and the heart cancelled each other out. "Double Slap!" She then quickly hit him twice across the face with her tail.

"Mud Slap!" The Trapinch kicked its feet, launching a small stream of mud at Roggenrola.

"Ah! H-Harden!" Roggenrola solidified his body as the mud splashed into him.

"C'mon! Fight back already!" Trapinch huffed.

Yeah, you can already tell who that left me with.

"I am going to kill you, pervert!" Maria growled at me.

"I'm not a pervert!" I yelled.

"There's a reason I'm called Dancing Flower, y'know." She said as she posed. "Prepare yourself for...Petal Dance!" She spun around rapidly, launching a storm of petals at me.

I only had time to cross my arms in defense as I was battered by petals and lifted high off the ground, continuing to endure until I fell back down into the sand.

"I'm not done!" Before I could even get up I was launched back by another storm of petals, sending me skidding across the unnaturally coloured sand.

"Okay, getting tossed around is NOT fun!" I scrambled to my feet and ran at her whilst my claw turned white. "Metal Claw!"

"Cotton Guard!" Suddenly, a bunch of white cotton puffed up in front of her, and I bounced off of it harmlessly.

"Wait, what!? Petal Dance ended!? Then you should be confused!" I argued.

"Don't be so sure of yourself." Maria told me, gesturing to a blue flower with tilted petals and a swirled centre on top of her head. "This Confuse Flower is a very rare piece of Gear, and prevents me from getting confused from my own attacks."

"What!? That's OP!" I raged.

"Too bad! So sad! Cotton Spore!" I jumped back as several cottony blobs floated at me, and stuck to my body, quickly turning me into a big puffy blob.

"This sucks!" I complained.

"Wing Attack!" Starrie quickly smacked his wing into Corn's face, making him tumbled back with swirled eyes. "Victory for the basic birds!"

"Wow, down after one Leaf Tornado." Sean commented on the defeated Sandshrew, before looking over at Roggenrola.

"Quick Attack!" Luke slammed his body into Cob's, knocking him out, but also wincing in pain. "Bad idea. TERRIBLE idea. Spikes REALLY hurt."

"Harden!" Roggenrola once again defended against a Mud-Slap.

"Arrrrggghhh! Quit it, already!" Trapinch raged.

"I...I..." Roggenrola sweated nervously. (Yeah, a rock sweating. Picture that.)

"Roggenrola!" The Rock-Type looked over at Sean. "Defense seems to be your safe zone, and that's a good thing, but you've also got to attack when you see an opening!"

"Hey! You stay out of this!" Trapinch turned on him. "Or do you wanna go, too!?"

Apparently, Trapinch turning away counted as an opening to the little stone.

"Rock Blast!" The Trapinch was caught off guard as a rock smashed into his side, sending him ragdolling through the sky before landing face first in the sand.

"Way to go, Roggenrola." The Snivy praised him.

"Thank you, Seansei!" Roggenrola cheered.

"What?" Sean turned to stone at the name.

"Gotcha now!" Sarah cheered playfully as she bounced around in front of a very injured Hippopotas.

"Hah...okay...this is looking bad..." He admitted. "I have no choice...it's time for my special attack!"

"Special attack!?" Sarah gasped with wide-eyed amazement. "Showmeshowmeshowmeshowme!"

"Alright...here I go!" The Hippopotas stood firmly. "...Dig!" He quickly burrowed down into the sand.

"...Hey! You just ran away!" Sarah realised.

"Cut it out, already!" I cried as I stumbled away from several green streams of Mega Drain energy.

"Oh no you don't! Petal Dance!" Once again, I was lifted up off the ground by a twister of petals.

"Stooooooooooop!" I almost pleaded at the uncomfortable weightlessness, but it was then that I realised that the Cotton Spore had been blown away by the attack! "Yes! I can use this!"

As the attack ceased, I spun around and aimed directly for her before divebombing.

"What the-!?" She shrieked.

"Fury Cutter!" My claws glowed green as I held them forward like a spear, as I stabbed straight into her in an eruption of sand, and I quickly backed away as she lay in the sand, injured from the attack.

"You...you brute..." She groaned.

"I think this is over." I told her. "I don't really wanna fight you."

"Well, too bad!" She was trying to struggle to her feet. "I...will not lose to someone like-"

She was interrupted as the Hippopotas burst out behind her, jaw wide open.

"Look out!" I pushed her out of the way and uppercutted the Ground-Type in its wide chin, making it stumble back.

"Tackle!" Sarah suddenly charged in and barreled into the hippo Pokemon, knocking it out. "I saved you guys! Yay, Sarah!"

"That was close." I sighed in relief. "Are you o...kay?" She was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Y-You saved me...why?" She practically whispered.

"Er...well, I couldn't just let you get attacked out of the blue like that." I told her. "Plus, I already said I didn't want to fight you so-"

"My hero!" She took me by surprise as she jumped up and hugged me.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" I screamed as her thorns dug painfully into my back.

"So Elin went from pervert to hero, what a jump." Luke praised.

"I'd rather be a pervert right now..." I hissed through gritted teeth as I endured the pain.

"I am sooooooo sorry, dearie! I just jumped to conclusions! I didn't realise you wrre such a brave, kind Pokemon!" Maria said as she increased her hold on me.

"Please let go of me..." I begged. She didn't.

"Miss Maria!" A now conscious Corn cried.

"Does this mean we're friends now?" An equally conscious Cob questioned.

Sean shrugged. "Love works miracles I guess."

"This isn't love, it's Tsundere syndrome!" I croaked as she strangled me.

"Mayyyyyyyybe we should keep moving." Starrie suggested.

"With Elin carrying her!?" Roggenrola cried.

"Yes." The Starly nodded.

"Jerks." I coughed as I got out the Clock Compass, only for my eyes to widen in shock. "Huh?"

"What's wrong, dearie?" Maria asked as she looked over my shoulder, scraping one of her head cactuses across my helmet and creating a horrible screeching noise that sent a terrible chill down my spine.

"Is it broken?" Sarah enquired.

"It's acting very weird..." Everybody looked over as I held the object out. It's needle was vibrating very quickly, and it was spinning left and right like a swinging pendulum, as if trying to get a constant lock on something.

"Now? It was fine back when we started." Sean said.

"Did you break it or something?" Corn asked.

"No! I don't think it can be broken!" I told the Cacnea. "Great, now we don't know where to go."

"That's kinda bad seeing as we're in the middle of a frikkin' desert." Luke pointed out.

"Why don't we go to Quester's Outpost?" Maria suggested.

"Where?" I asked her, making her nuzzle her cheek against mine (scraping right next to my non-existent ears...extremely unpleasant.)

"The Quester's Outpost! It's a small outpost town for Quester's to rest and meet up!" Cob told us.

"It was stationed in the Psychic Sands so that only REAL Quester's could make it there." Corn explained.

"We were originally on our way there, but then we got tired so we decided to have a nap." And Maria made it come full circle.

"Maybe we'll be able to get some information there." Sean suggested. "Plus, I don't think we should stay out in this desert for too long."

"Then it's decided." I nodded, looking at Maria. "Which way do we go?"

"I'LL direct you." She said as she hugged more, causing me further pain and discomfort. "But you'll have to carry meeeeeee."

"W-Wonderful." I hissed.

And so we trekked through the unnaturally coloured desert, occasionally beating up the Rogues that would pop out of the ground (which was difficult for me since I was carrying a Maractus on my back!)

Until we spotted something in the distance, and redoubled our efforts towards it. It looked like a wild west style town, with a little sign saying 'Quester's Outpost' above the entrance. It had everything you'd expect, from a bank, to a saloon to a little sheriff's office, but also included some other areas such as a Quest Center and an Item and Gear shop. The place was filled with Ground-type Townies, with me being able to see a Phanpy, a Cubone and a Marowak, and a Dugtrio.

"Looks like this is the place." Luke observed.

"This is the place where Quester's all come to gather and share stories." Cob nodded.

"Let's go to the bar, darling!" Maria squeezed more.

"Ahhhhhhuuhhhh...about that..." As quickly as possible I performed a suplex, throwing her into the sand and running off. "Go on without me!"

"Darliiiiing! Come baaaaack!" Maria cried as she unfortunately gave chase.

"Miss Maria!" The two Cacnea also ran forward.

"...Okay then." Starrie said.

"What do we do? Huh? Huh?" Sarah asked.

"If I know anything about wild west towns...let's go to the bar." Sean nodded as the group headed over.

I, meanwhile, dived into the Item and Gear shop, where a GLiscor was at the counter. "Um...can I help you?"

"Yes! Please! I-" I stopped when I realised what Pokemon it was, because if you didn't know, Gliscor is my favourite Pokemon. "Oh...my...Arceus." I sprang to my feet. "Your a Gliscor! Oh, man! Your my favourite Pokemon!"

"Oh, um, really? Thank you." The Gliscor coughed. "So, er...is there something you want?"

I quickly remembered my problem. "Yes! I need a piece of Gear that can hide me, quickly!"

"Gear like that, huh?" Gliscor pondered for a moment. "I think I have something..."

At the same time, the rest of the group sat in the bar as a Diggersby smoking a cigar stood behind the counter cleaning glasses. It was clear that other Questers were sitting around, considering they weren't Ground-types. Among them were a Flaffy, a Chingling and a Litleo.

"So, you all are Quester's?" Diggs the Diggersby asked as he cleaned the glasses.

"Yes, we just came here because we're a little...um...lost." Sean admitted.

"I see, I see." Diggs nodded. "You guys got any prestige yet? Titles?"

"Well..." Sean started. "Not just ye-"

"We do! We do!" Sarah interrupted excitedly. "I'm Cute Kitty Sarah!"

"Name's Dark Hound, Luke." Luke grinned confidently.

"I'm Iron Ore Roggenrola!" The Rock type nodded.

"Just call my Sky High Starrie." The basic bird bowed with its wing.

'Seriously?' Sean thought. 'When did you all come up with those?'

"What about you, Grass guy?" Diggs asked.

"I...er..." Sean racked his brain for a Title, and hurriedly settled on an old nickname. "Commander! Y-Yes, Commander Sean."

"Commander, huh? Pretty fancy." Diggs noted.

"It's...just something people used to call me." Sean admitted, whilst discreetly glancing away.

Luke and Sarah were taking the time to socialise with some of the other Quester's, who were looking up at a billboard pinned to the opposite end of the bar.

"What is this?" Sarah asked.

"This is the Rogue List." Flaffy said. "They have a copy in every Quest Center, but the bar here decided to put one up just to discuss over it." The billboard had multiple wanted posters and snapshots pinned to it, all with rewards underneath them.

"Hey, uh...who's that one?" Luke asked, pointing to the largest poster in the center. It depicted a Sableye giving a creepy grin whilst half of its face was shadowed. An incredibly staggering 1 million Pokedollars was underneath it.

"That?...That's 'Rogue King' Sables." Litleo said.

"Heeeeee's the most iiiiiiinfamous and most daaaaaangerous Rogue to ever exiiiiiiiiist!" Chingling sang.

"He's defeated countless Quester's and broken into many high account establishments." Flaffy elaborated. "Very few have ever been able to properly see him."

"Scary..." Sarah whimpered.

Just then, a figure hurried into the room and sat at the counter, hanging his head low. He wore a dark yellow cowboy hat with a bronze Bronzor badge on the front of it and a blue and green zigzagging sash around it.

"...Elin?" Sean asked.

"Shhhh!" I shushed him. "I finally managed to lose Maria. I bought this Weathered West Hat as a disguise."

"Is she really that bad?" Roggenrola asked.

"He thorns hurt and the screeching noises are unbearable." I muttered.

"And...you are?" Diggs asked.

Taking the opportunity, I tried to look as badass as possible. "My name is Silver Sword Elin."

"Oh, come on, you too?" The Snivy huffed.

"Never heard of ya." Diggs shrugged. "You and your friends up-and-coming?"

"I guess you could say that." I shrugged.

"Back to the point." Sean got us back on track. "Listen, we're looking for somewhere we can find...help, information, a direction to go."

"Wanderers, eh?" Diggs chuckled, resting his ears on the counter whilst chewing his cigar. "Well then I'll tell you what I've told others like you. Head to Unao."

"Unao?" I echoed.

"Yeah. Town is full of Psychic-types. If you need help, you'll find it there." Diggs nodded.

"Sounds like a plan." Sean nodded. "We should get moving as soon as possib-"

"Darliiiiiiing!" I froze as a certain Maractus appeared in the doorway. "There you are!"

"Shit! Bail!" Acting on Pokemon instinct, I jumped through the nearest window and sprinted away.

And three hooded figures watched me go past, then started to follow me.

"Ohhhhhh! He plays so hard to get! I kinda like that..." Maria sighed lovingly.

"You'll get him, Miss!" Cob assured him.

"We'll hold him down!" Corn added.

"Sheesh, tough love if I've ever seen it." Diggs harrumphed.

"She's a little Hoothoot if you ask me." Starrie whispered, making Diggs shoot him a look. "Oh come on! I'm a basic bird too, y'know, I'm allowed! Ever heard the phrase your like and Endeavor Starly? That stings too y'know!"

Suddenly, there was a crash outside, making everybody in the bar turn towards the door. "Wh-What was that!?" Roggenrola panicked.

"I'll check!" Sarah offered, poking her head out the doorway. "...Um...we have a teeny tiny problem." Everybody else quickly joined her and saw the commotion.

Scattered all around the town, were Scraggy's, wearing skull face paint and sombreros, like mariachis. They were scrambling around all the buildings, blocking off all windows and doors.

"There we go, amigos." A voice said. "We've been waiting a long time for this." The voice belonged to a Scrafty standing in the center of town. He wore skull face paint like the Scraggy's, only blood red in colour, and his sombrero was much larger and jet black instead of yellow.

"Who is that?" Luke asked.

"Oh, crud..." Diggs growled. "He's the big Rogue in Psychic Sands."

"Hey!" They stopped as several Scraggy's grouped in front of them. "Get back inside, muchacho." They each held up a glowing red fist for emphasis as they slammed the door shut.

"So...we're trapped." Luke said.

"Basically." Sean said as more Scraggy's clamored around the windows.

"These Crafty Bandits have been gaining numbers for a while." Diggs said as he observed the situation. "Never thought this is what they were planning."

Outside, the Scrafty chuckled as he looked around the lockdowned town, hands stuck in his 'pockets' casually. "Si, Si, excellent work, amigos. Looks like Quester's Outpost is ours now, eh?" All the Scraggy's cheered.

Just then, there was an explosion as several Scraggy's were sent flying, and the Scraggy turned around as an Excadrill wearing a gold sheriff's badge walked in front of him.

"El Scrafty...you must be pretty cocky." The Excadrill said.

"Sheriff Exca." El Scrafty chuckled. "Noble as always...trust me, I'm not being cocky. I'm just curing my boredom. I've been having siestas for far too long...punk." He grinned. "It's great crack, fooling around like this, gonna turn it upside down! Have a REAL fiesta!"

"Like hell you will!" He reverted into his drill form. "Drill Rush!" He barreled towards the Dark/Fighting type with incredible speed and power.

El Scrafty, however, just gave a cocky grin, sticking his hands in his pockets. "You think that crap will work on me!?" At the last second, he jumped over the attack, and his right knee glowed a bright orange. "High Jump Kick!" He smashed his knee into the spinning sheriff, causing him to smash into the ground with a giant eruption of purple sand.

As the dust cleared, El Scrafty stood there casually, revealing a knocked out Excadrill beneath him, which he proceeded to spit on. "Tough luck, chump."

"Shit, well, we're officially in trouble now." Diggs said.

"Noooo! My poor darling is out there!" Maria cried.

"Hey, where IS Elin?" Starrie asked.

Meanwhile, I was hiding behind a building to escape from Maria. "Please don't let her find me..." Risking a peek around, my eyes widened as I saw the entire town filled with...mariachi Scraggy's?

"What the...?" I looked around quickly, and timing myself, sprinted past each building, keeping out of sight, until I reached the back of the bar, and knocked on it. "Hey, somebody! Can anyone here me?"

"Elin?" Sarah's voice came through. "Your okay! The towns been overrun by Scraggy's!"

"I saw." I told her. "Don't worry, I'm gonna try and help you ou-"

"Darling!" I flinched as Maria's voice came through. "I knew you'd come to save me!"

"Maria, please!" Sean interrupted her. "Elin! Listen to me! We're all trapped inside, and if you try to fight them, you'll be completely outnumbered. You have to run whilst you still can!"

"No way, I'm not leaving you guys here!" I told him.

"Tough luck." He said. "You have to head on to Unao! Diggs says its northeast, so from where your stranding, just keep moving forward! Don't worry, I have a plan to get out of this, but you need to go get help!"

"But..." I began.

"Hey! There's some sneaky bambino behind here!" A Scraggy called, pointing at me.

"Run, darling! Don't worry about me!" Maria cried.

"Hurry up, already! Or your no better off!" Luke said.

I shook my head in frustration, but it really seemed that at this time I had no other option. "I'll come back for you, I promise!" I then spun on my heel and ran as fast as possible whilst holding my hat, dashing across the sands away from the trapped town...alone.

And the three hooded figures followed me.

 **Okay, new chapter! Finally! Sorry it took so long, guys!**

 **But yes, this starts off the Yellow Shard Arc by introducing new faces, new places and new problems! And next chapter we'll have not one, but two new OC's joining the gang! Excitement!**

 **...Fine, this time I was distracted by my Undertale fandom. I'm Undertale trash, bite me!**

 **Annnnnyyyyyywayyyyyy, I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope you all like this question of the chapter.**

 **QOTC: What do you want to/think will/expect will, happen this chapter?**

 **Just a nice little theory question for you. If you want to, you can come to the Starfield forum, Pokemon Quest Life Showcase, and chat with each other, or me! Anybody is welcome!**

 **So, once more, I must bid you all adieu, until the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Way Awakens!

 **Current Location: Unao**

 **Residents: Kalamazar, Gothitelle, Reuniclus, Elgyem, Meowstic Twins, Mr. Mime and Mime Jr., Xatu, ?, ?.**

Light poured in from the giant stained glass window, which depicted several Legendary Psychic-Types all in a violet glow.

This reflected well on the library, a place of peace and tranquility. But with its mural floor of ancient stories and the white marble stone bookcases, you would think the building was more like a church. Except for the fact that the tables and chairs were floating, and that the books were organising themselves with a soft blue glow.

Sitting on one of the floating chairs was a Kirlia, her non-existent nose buried in a book about location diversity within the world. She wore a pearl white scarf around her neck, though different to Elin's in the fact that it was a neckerchief, with a blue diamond-shaped pin in it. But the most noticeable thing about her was that she did not have a tutu like regular Kirlia, instead the white lines folded down to her feet and curled around behind her, giving it the appearance of a lab coat.

The library was probably her favourite place here. Nobody to bother her, it was nice and quiet, time to think, ponder, assume, and of course, read. She had burned her way through several generic books about the world and its history, and was about to move onto more specific subjects...perhaps how Types actually worked.

As the librarian, a Gothitelle, organised the area with Psychic (evident by her glowing blue eyes), another Pokemon then plodded into the library, carrying a book titled 'Unao's Myths and Legends' under his arm. He was a Drowzee, with a little quiff-like patch of fur sticking up from the top of his head. Instead of the creepy, doopy look most Drowzee's had, his eyes were wide awake and filled with joy. He wore a neat dark purple coloured velvet bow tie with a round stone in the middle that looked suspiciously like a red eye.

He went to call up to the Kirlia, but froze when he felt the Gothitelle's psychic gaze bore into his back. He coughed nervously before taking the stairs up to the next level, then as carefully as possible, sat himself down in a floating chair near Julia, but not too close.

"Hey, Julia." He whispered.

"Hello, Sebastian." The Kirlia replied, eyes still glued to her book.

'At least she's making an effort to talk this time...' The Drowzee thought. "Um...listen, apparently Xatu foresaw someone coming here, I...think it was a Pawniard."

"Mm-hm?" She questioned, though obviously not interested.

"Yeah...she said that...well, she said that it was gonna bring bad news with it." Sebastian continued, only for Julia to keep reading. "So...I was kinda thinking maybe we should be there to greet it? You know, see what the problem is? Maybe help out?"

"No, thank you." Julia dismissed him.

The Drowzee huffed. The Kirlia truly was a mystery to him, ever since they met she had been buried in books. She didn't like crowds, heck, didn't like socialism full stop, the only thing he could see she loved was science, yeah, she adored Hammerspace. The only reason they were acquaintances was because they were both-

"HELLO!?" He was broken out of his train of thought by a loud shout. "IS THIS UNAO!? IS ANYBODY HERE!?"

"Oh, geez!" Sebastian muttered. "Who was that!?"

Julia, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes in dissaproval at the shout. "ANYBODY!? PLEASE! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" She scrunched her face up in annoyance. "SOMEBODY!?" Welp, that was that. She closed her book forcefully, teleported down to the ground, and walked out of the library hurriedly.

"J-Julia! Wait for me!" Sebastian panicked

 _Quest Life_

Trust me, when I got to Unao, I fell flat on my face after tripping over in shock.

The streets were paved with neatly laid out pearl white tiles that were smooth on the feet. The houses were very mythical looking; having curved around roofs with crystals balls on the top, made out of purple, sky blue and pink cloth (yes, cloth. Cloth houses.) with intricate constellation patterns over them. But that wasn't the major thing about them, oh no...

Thry were floating! All of the buildings glowed a faint blue and were floating! Very calmly, like resting in a sea, and if any weight were to be applied they would tilt that way. At the very back of the town, but in plain sight from the entrance, was what looked like a big grand hall, twice as long as the other houses, but still made of the same cloth, with a picture of a sun crossed with a moon hanging over its doorway.

Of course, I told myself I didn't have time to admire the scenery, and began calling out for help. It was like this place was empty! The only Pokemon I had seen coming in was that Xatu wat hing me, and even it had flown off!

I then stopped as I finally heard sounds of Pokemon life; footsteps. I looked to my right to see a Kirlia walking out of a very tall cloaked building. Her skirt was much longer then a normal Kirlia's, looking more like a lab coat actually.

"Thank Arceus I'm not alone." I breathed in relief. "Listen, I need you hel-"

BAM!

Next thing I knew I was face down...I think I got hit by a book.

"Please stop being so loud." She said.

"Ouch!" I sat up and rubbed my helmet. "That actually hurt, y'know!"

"Your a Steel-Type and you got hurt by a book?" She asked.

"Um...yes?" She fixed me with an analytical view.

"Do you have a mouth behind that mask?" She asked me.

"I...never thought about it?" I admitted.

"Julia! Hold on!" I then noticed a Drowzee with a quiff of hair stop next to her...and that was a weird bow tie. "Ah...hello. Nice to meet you. You must be the Pawniard that was coming. Well, my name is Sebastian. Sebastian Henderson. And this is-"

"Julia Belaya." The Kirlia interrupted him, with a small smile...I didn't like the look behind her eyes she was giving me. "It's nice to meet you." She then poked herself between the eyes for some reason.

"We don't wear glasses anymore, remember?" Sebastian said.

'Hmm...a reflex thing.' I thought as Julia ignored the comment. 'In that case...'

I took out Hoopa's ring and stared at the two of them through it. "Woah, okay, what is that?" Sebastian asked.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised when I saw they were human.

In place of the Kirlia was a young woman with, admittedly worrying, sickly pale skin and a thin physique. She had dirty blonde chin-length straight hair with side-swept bangs, dark brown narrow eyes and blonde eyebrows and eyelashes. She wore a beige turtleneck underneath a long white labcoat with two big pockets, black trousers with a dark blue belt, shabby grey sneakers with blue laces, and small ruby earrings on either side of some square-framed glasses.

And instead of a Drowzee, I saw a guy with straight, light blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail that reached to about half way down his back. He was also pale, but with blue eyes and a face full of freckles. He wore a purple argyle sweater vest over a long sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows along with plain black trousers, smart brown shoes and thin framed glasses.

"Nice to meet you, humans." I greeted them as casually as possible.

Well, Sebastian looked like he'd seen a Ghastly before he clamped a paw over my non-existent mouth. "H-How do you know that!?"

"Same predicament. Plus I looked through this ring." I held it up for emphasis.

"This ring?" Julia asked, holding it. "How does it work?"

"Th-That's not the issue right now!" He began nibbling on the ends of his fingers nervously. "I was seriously worried we were the only two here. But still! You can't just say that out loud! What if somebody hears you?"

"I don't see anybody." I pointed out.

"That's because everybody is hiding inside because Xatu said you brought bad news!" He spoke quickly, having to take big gulps of air afterwards.

"Bad news?" My eyes widened as I remembered. "I did! Listen! Quester's Outpost has been taken over by a bunch of Scraggy's! I came here looking for help!"

"Quester's Outpost?" Julia echoed. "That town south of here? Why would anybody want to take it over? Maybe because its a popular location with Questers? To ambush them?" I then realised she was talking to herself.

"Ah, you must be the Pawniard Xatu informed us of." I spun around to see a Reuniclus floating behind me. "It's okay, everyone! It's not an emergency!"

As soon as he announced that, more Psychic-Types emerged from the houses. I could see an Elgyem, a male and female Meowstic, a father and son Mr. Mime and Mime Jr., and the Xatu from earlier.

"Thank..." "Goodness." The two Meowstic spoke together.

"It is highly unlikely for us ever to recieve an unorthodox negative prediction. Please excuse our cowardly actions." The Elgyem said.

"To be honest, we're more researchers then fighters." The Mr, Mime said as his son peeked around from behind his leg.

"Sorry about that. False alarm." Xatu said.

"We didn't mean to come off as rude." Reuniclus said. "On to the matter at hand though. Kalamazam has granted you an audience with him."

"Who's that?" I asked Sebastian.

"He's basically the leader around here." The Drowzee whispered. "He's also the reason why the buildings float."

"Wait, he's making this entire town float like this? Constantly!?" I gaped.

"If you will come with me. Julia, Sebastian, you are also welcome." Reuniclus offered, and the three of us followed him.

I felt a dark feeling bore into my back, and I looked behind to see Julia, quite a few steps behind us, deliberately away from the crowd. "J-Julia? You okay?"

"I'm fine." She told me in a soft tone.

'Why do I feel like she really hates me?' I thought as we continued walking.

We entered the big grand hall, and Reuniclus bowed. "Kalamazam, I have brought the Pawniard."

I'll admit, I wasn't surprised to see an Alakazam sitting there, cross legged on a luxurious red pillow, with pink smoke drifting from the two pipes standing either side of him, that looked like little Lampents. He had his eyes closed in meditation, and a soft blue light constantly surrounded him.

He didn't say anything, so we just stood there for an awkward moment, at least giving me time to look around. Maybe this place was actually a museum. There were multiple ancient looking artifacts sitting on pedastals, and tapestries depicting ancient and Legendary Pokemon covered every square inch of the walls. I noticed Julia studying everything intently out of the corner of my eye.

"I foresaw your arrival, Elin Ray." I looked forward as Kalamazam opened his eyes, which were also glowing blue. He spoke calmly, as if he had all the time in the world. "I am glad we are able to meet."

"Nice to meet you too." I waved.

"You don't greet someone like him so casually!" Sebastian said.

"So, your the one making all the buildings float?" I asked.

He nodded. "It keeps me in a constant state of focus and calmness, allowing me to hone my sight and foresight. But, we are getting off course. You have come here on the matter of your allies at Quester's Outpost, have you not?"

"Yes!" I said. "Please! My friends are trapped and need help!"

Kalamazam nodded. "I understand. However, I will tell you that you will find no help here. The Pokemon of Unao are no more then peaceful researchers, they cannot fight against the threat to the Outpost."

"What!? But then-?" Kalamazam raised his hand to silence me.

"Do not fear. Their future is not one of defeat. I see that they will overcome this challenge against them, even without assistance."

"Really? You can see something like that?" I sighed in relief. "I'm glad."

He nodded. "Your journey here was not one in vain, though. You have another matter you need my guidance on."

"You mean..." I took out the Clock Compass, which was still spinning erratically.

"What is that?" Julia suddenly took an interest in it.

"The Clock Compass. That which points towards the Key Shards." Kalamazam nodded. "I study many lores, I understand their history."

"So, can you direct us to the next Key Shard?" I requested.

Alas, he shook his head. "The Key Shards are ancient and mysterious treasures, they escape even MY sight. In contrast, I may be able to help you narrow your search. Come with me." He then floated off of his pillow and over towards a wall.

As I followed him, we passed what looked like an old vase covered with rock. I don't know why it stood out to me from the rest of the old stuff, it just did.

I returned my attention back to Kalamazam, as he floated in front of a tapestry depicting a large temple of some kind. "Thousands of years ago, this temple, known as the Temple of Enlightenment, was the greatest building in all the world, resting in the Psychic Sands. Those would come here to give praise to their various Gods, be it Arceus, Giratina, or others."

'Giratina is treated like a God?' I thought.

"Alas, one day, they say that a meteor stuck the temple." Kalamazam continued. "It is told that the Gods became angry with the defiled temple, and buried it beneath the sands for all eternity."

"You don't truly believe a God did that?" Julia asked.

"I do not think so. But the fact remains that the Temple of Enlightenment is no longer visible to us in the Psychic Sands." Kalamazam said as he floated back to his cushion.

"So, wait, your saying that the Key Shard has something to do with the Temple of Enlightenment?" I asked.

"I have researched the temple extensively. It was said to have had many treasures and relics within its walls. If a Key Shard is indeed within the Psychic Sands, it would be within the temple." Kalamazam confirmed.

"Great, now I just have to find a buried temple." I muttered.

"Reuniclus, could you give this Pawniard Artifact 23B, please?" The Alakazam requested.

"23B? Of course." The Reuniclus floated away for a second, before coming back with a little stone doll which looked like a Baltoy.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's a relic we unearthed. We strongly believe that it is tied to the Temple of Enlightenment, perhaps even an entranceway for it." Kalamazam explained. "We have never tried anything with it before, but, I entrust it to you now, Elin Ray, confident you will put it to good use."

"I got it, find the temple. Thank you, Kalamazam." I nodded.

He bowed his head. "You are all free to leave." Reuniclus, Julia and Sebastian left, and I turned to go as well. "Elin Ray." I looked back at him.

"I see a path full of trials you must walk. It is full of injury, and heartbreak. But know that you must persevere down this path, for along it, you shall discover a great power within yourself, which will decide the fate of this world."

I thought about what he said, then silently left.

"So, what are you gonna do now?" Sebastian asked me.

"I'm heading back to Quester's Outpost." I told him. "If they're gonna be okay, then I have to rendezvous with them as soon as possible."

"Well, we were thinking about coming with you, seeing as we have...similar backstories. Right, Julia?" Sebastian said.

The Kirlia gave both an uncomfortable look at the thought, then a small glare at me, then put on a small smile. "Sure, I'd like to see the diversity between them all. Maybe there's a pattern I could find. Besides, there's a new world out there to explore."

"I was gonna ask you guys to come with me anyway, so, welcome to the team." I approved them.

"There you are!"

The three of us stopped as a familiar voice shouted out across the town.

Standing in front of us were three hooded figures.

"I can't believe my luck...seeing you in my home turf! It must be fate!" The middle hooded figure growled.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

The supposed leader chuckled. "You forgot me already? That stings, Elin." They grabbed their cloaks and threw them off, and my eyes widened in shock.

"Your...Your that Sandile I first fought!"

"The name's Da Croc ya shmuck!" The Sandile snapped. I recognised him from his Teeth Neckerchief wrapped around his neck.

"And, hold on, your that Ferroseed from Petal Path!"

"It's Spike, moron!" He raged at me. He was wearing what looked like a silver ring with a green pearl in it around one of his spikes.

"And your...!" I paused as I stared at the Inkay with a black spike tattoo circling around its right eye. "Actually, I don't know who you are."

"Name's Blinck." He said. "You must be this Pawniard Croc's been talking about."

"Me and Blinck go way back when we were up and coming Rogues." Da Croc explained. "He owed me a couple of favours."

"That Inkay was hanging around town a few days ago, then is disappeared." Julia thought aloud.

"Sorry, Elin, do you know these guys?" Sebastian asked.

"We go back a bit." I figured. "What are you going here?"

"Isn't it obvious!?" Da Croc growled. "You humiliated me back in Oreace! So now, I've been gathering a team of my own! And we're gonna take you down!"

"Oh yeah?" I swung my arm in circles. "I beat you once, I'll do it again! Let's have a 3-on-3 battle!"

There was a pause, before the three Rogues started snickering. "Are you sure about that?" Spike asked.

I was a bit confused for a moment, until I turned to see Julia wayyyyyyyyy behind me, and Sebastian just straight up gone. "Hey! What the heck, guys!?"

"I only know Psychic-Type attacks, and two of them are Dark-Types, with the third being a Steel-Type." Julia called. "We're pretty disadvantaged here."

"Even your weak against that Sandile's Ground-Type, Elin!" Sebastian's voice rang out surprisingly close, when I realised he was standing behind me.

"Oh, come on!" I cried.

"Looks like its 1 vs. 3." Blinck cackled.

"I get first dibs." Da Croc ordered. "Here I come, Elin!" He suddenly burrowed his way underground.

"Oh shit! Dig!" I began running around, with Sebastian tailing behind me. "Sebastian! Do you know any non-Psychic type moves!?"

"I know Headbutt, and Hypnosis doesn't count!" He told me.

"Good! You take the Inkay!" I told him.

"I guess since we're fighting!" He panicked before we split up.

I took a diving leap as Da Croc burst out of the ground, with me just barely avoiding the hit. "Mud-Slap!" His tail glowed a grimy yellow as he swung it back and forth, launching blobs of mud at me.

I back stepped away from the attack and crossed my arms, making my claws glow white. "Metal Claw!" I jumped up towards him holding my blades back.

"Bite!" As I swung with my right dagger, he bit down on my attack, causing white sparks to fly everywhere. I quickly slashed him in the side with my left dagger, sending him plummeting down, but he used quickly recovered and used the momentum to his advantage and Dig again. As soon as I landed, he burst up and hit me in the stomach, sending me flying back.

"Headbutt!" Sebastian launched head first up towards Blinck, only for the Inkay to flat out of his way and grab his leg. "Oh no..."

"Fouuuuuuuul Play!" The Inkay playfully tossed him into the ground, making him cry out in pain as his back hit the floor.

"That hurt...that really really hurt..." He groaned.

"Pin Missile!" Spike spun around, launching several white needles that hit the Drowzee in the stomach, sending him tumbling away.

"I...am not...cut out for this..." He grunted as the two Pokemon advanced on him.

I landed and quickly jumped back up on my feet, wincing from the pain and realising that I was standing next to Julia. "Come on, you may only have Psychic-Type attacks, but there must be SOMETHING you can do!"

"Protect me, I have a plan." She stated.

"Uh...okay?" I stood in front of her as Sandile leapt at me with another Bite, and I blocked it with Scratch.

"Tackle!" Spike threw himself at Sebastian, but Julia's eyes glowed, causing the Ferroseed to freeze in midair. "Huh?" Suddenly he swerved across the sky and barreled into Blinck, sending the Inaky flying before hitting Da Croc next.

"Gah! Those spikes hurt!" The Sandile muttered through gritted teeth. "Damnit Spike! What in the Distortion World are you doing!?"

"It's not my fault! I can't control myself!" The Ferroseed whined as it smashed itself into the ground.

"It's that Kirlia! She's using Psychic!" Blinck cried before he got smacked across the face by the Grass/Steel Type again.

Da Croc glared at Julia, but I stood in front of her protectively. "Oh, so THAT's how it is, huh? Well let's see you block THIS! Sand Tomb!" A small sand tornado emerged around us, and we were battered with stones and sand.

"Ack!" I coughed as me and Julia had to shield ourselves.

This caused Spike to stop floating and land head first in the purple sand. "Finally!" Blinck sighed. "Now to deal with you!" The Inkay and Drowzee faced off once again in an epic showdown.

"Hypnosis!" They both launched a wave of purple rings at each other, but thankfully Sebastian had Insomnia, so only Blinck fell asleep. That left Sebastian free to Headbutt the Inkay into the ground like a nail, defeating him.

Truly legendary.

"H-Hey! I did it! Ow! My head hurts! But I still did it! But still, ouch..." The Drowzee mumbled.

Meanwhile we were still trapped in the Sand Tomb. "How do we get out of this!?" Just then I felt Julia grab my arm. "Hey, what are you-!?"

We were then outside of the Sand Tomb, and I felt like I had just been on a rollercoaster, as in I felt like I was going to be sick.

"I used Teleport." Julia told me. "I didn't think it would work with you being part Dark-Type, but it turned out alright."

"Yeah...thanks..." I forced the vomit to the bottom of my stomach.

"Elin!" Unfortunately, Da Croc wasn't done as he burst out of the ground with his tail glowing. "Take this!" He launched more mud blobs at me.

I jumped up towards him and spun around the blobs as my dagger crackled with dark energy. "Feint Attack!" I gave a feint swing, then uppercutted him underneath his mouth, launching him upwards. It was then that the dark energy spread throughout my dagger and lengthened it, and I smirked, realising what it was.

"Night Slash!" I slashed him across the back, making him land defeated on the ground whilst I landed neatly.

On that note, Julia walked over to Spike and lifted him out of the ground with Psychic.

"...Uhhh...truce?" He requested.

"No." The Kirlia denied, before smashing the Ferroseed multiple times inbetween the buildings and the ground with force to rival Genocide Sans, the multiple hits taking its toll and leaving the Pokemon a blithering loser.

"I guess that counts as our win." I said.

"Grrrr..." Da Croc growled. "This isn't over, Elin Ray! I'll defeat ya if its the last thing I do!" He then burrowed into the sand, taking his accomplices with him.

"Thanks, you two were awesome." I thanked them.

"Heh, I didn't even realise I could do that." Sebastian admitted, straightening his bow tie.

"It all comes down to thinking." Julia nodded. "I suppose your forgiven now, Elin."

"...You were still mad at me from the whole shouting thing?" I thought aloud.

"Pretty much." She replied honestly.

"Ah! Books! That reminds me!" Sebastian quickly hurried into the library.

"Well done! Well done!" I turned around to be met with Reuniclus. "You were splendid out there against those Rogues. Here, I want you to have this as thanks." He handed me a small purple ball with the number 65 on it.

"Thanks for...what is this?" I asked.

"Ah, it's a piece of Technical Candy!" Reuniclus told me. "Candies are similar to Gems, except you use them when your not in a battle. Technical Candies make you instantly learn a new move once you eat them!"

'So it's like a Technical Machine.' I thought.

"Okay, okay, I'm ready!" Sebastian came back aout with a brown satchel slung over his shoulder, filled with books. "Just some stuff for the road."

"Let's get moving to Quester's Outpost, then!" I said.

"Safe travels!" Reuniclus waved as we set off.

"So, care to tell us what it is exactly your doing?" Julia asked.

"I guess I have to tell you." I said, beginning to explain our tale.

 **Here's the next chapter! And it didn't take forever this time! Yay, OPFan37!**

 **So, yeah! This chapter we're introduced to two new OC's! The analytical and antisocial Kirlia, Julia Belaya was created by Kamico-chan! Whilst the nerdy and rational Drowzee, Sebastian Henderson was created by Hauchen! Give a big hand for these two!**

 **Of course, remember, since I'm so nice, I'm still accepting OC's, but my standards have been set pretty high now, so if you still want to get in, your gonna have to wow me!**

 **Now it's time for the...**

 **QOTC: What do you think of our two new Psychic-Type heroes?**

 **Next chapter, we'll see how the gang back at Quester's Outpost have been getting on! See you then!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Showdown at Quester's Outpost

 **Current Groups: The Sword the Smarts and the Speculation (Elin, Julia and Sebastian), Those Who Wait (Sean, Luke, Sarah, Roggenrola and Starrie)**

 **Quester's:**

 **'Silver Sword' Elin (Swift Scarf, Rookie Badge, Weathered West Hat)**

 **Julia (Mana Scarf)**

 **Sebastian (Hypnotist's Eye)**

 **'Commander' Sean (Leaf Neckerchief, Vine Sticker)**

 **'Dark Hound' Luke (Gangsta Glasses, Battle Jacket)**

 **'Cute Kitty' Sarah (Cute Bow, Stardust Sparkles)**

 **'Iron Ore' Roggenrola (Big Gem)**

 **'Sky High' Starrie (Talonflame Feather)**

An old grandfather clock in the corner of the bar ticked away as the captive Pokemon sat at the tables, the menacing mariachi Scraggy's leering in to check on them every now and then.

Sean had folded his arms and closed his eyes in deep thought, as Roggenrola sat next to him, Starrie hopped anxiously up in the rafters at having been inside for so long, whilst Luke and Sarah were chasing each others tails. The other Quester's and Diggs were all staring out the cracks in the doors and the windows.

"What exactly do they intend to accomplish keeping us all trapped? They can't keep us in here forever." Diggs grumbled through his cigar.

"Maybe they just want to establish dominance?" Flaffy suggested.

"Or maybe they're gonna enslave us." Litleo suggested.

"No way! We shall not be suppressed!" "Nosirree!" Luke and Sarah declared.

"Darling will come back, I just know it." Maria said.

"Yes, ma'am." "We'll wait, ma'am." Corn and Cob agreed.

"What are you thinking about, Sir Sean?" Roggenrola asked.

"Please don't call me that. I'm weighing up our options." The Snivy told him. "Since the doors and windows are blocked, we have two options."

"Dooooo yooooooou haaaaave aaaaaaa plaaaaaaan?" Chingling sang.

"If you can call it that..." Sean mumbled, glancing to the side. "For Option A, I'm gonna need somebody brave and reckless."

"I volunteer Luke!" Sarah called.

"I also volunteer Luke!" Starrie raised a wing.

"I volunteer myself!" Luke declared.

"Figures. Okay, Luke, just come stand over here." He directed the Poochyena over in front of him.

"Alright, so what have I gotta do?" Luke asked cheerfully, only for two vines to wrap around his waist. "Er...Sean?"

Before he could say anything else, Sean smashed him into the ceiling.

"Sean!" Sarah cried in horror.

"Arceus, kid! That's my roof!" Diggs yelled.

"What about the Pokemon on the end of it!?" Starrie cried.

"I told you I needed somebody brave and reckless." Sean said. "Since normal methods are no good, I thought we'd try an unorthodox one: up. Luke! Is the coast clear up there?"

Meanwhile, Luke's head poking out of the roof had its ears drooping as three Scraggy's stood above him, glaring down at him.

"Hola, amigo." One of the Scraggy's hissed.

"Sean! Pull me down!" Luke panicked.

THWACK!

The Scraggy's used Headbutt to play a game of Whack-a-Poochyena, sending Luke crashing down into the floor.

"My floor!" Diggs shouted.

"Well then, you've decided Option B, Luke. Down." Sean said. "Diggs, do you know Dig?"

The Diggersby gave him a half-lidded look. "Really, kid? My name?"

"Just checking." The Snivy shrugged as the Normal/Ground Type used one of its shovel ears to pull Luke up out of the debris.

"Hey, pup, wake up." Diggs shook him.

"Mummy...the Magikarps are swimming in the Zigzagoon's..." Luke blithered as he slowly recovered.

"Listen! You wrecked my floor, so your gonna help me dig!" Diggs told him as he removed the rest of the broken flooring, revealing the purple sand underneath.

"Huh? But I don't know Dig." Luke said.

"Kid, your a Poochyena, Dig should be no problem for you to learn." Diggs told him before putting him down. "Just follow me lead, okay?"

"A-Alright." Luke reasoned as the two began digging down.

"Everybody follow." Luke beckoned as they jumped into the hole.

Diggs and Luke continued digging a tunnel until the Diggersby stopped. "Alright, we're under the main square, so what's the plan?"

"Here, we'll split up." Sean told him. "Half of us will go to the left, half of us will go to the right. We'll launch a surprise attack and incapacitate most of the Scraggy, then we focus on El Scrafty up there."

"Taking on all of those Scrafty's?" Diggs sounded unsure. "Even with all of us, that'll be tough."

"I'm up for it!" Luke volunteered.

"Me too!" Sarah cheered.

"I'll follow Sean no matter what!" Roggenrola declared.

"Count me in!" Starrie nodded.

"I guess we're in too, then." "We're Quester's after all!" "Leeeeeeet's gooooooo!" Flaffy, Litleo and Chingling cheered.

Diggs shook his head and chuckled. "Your all insane...but damn, I love it. Alright then. Me and poochy here will split our digging."

"Poochy!?" Luke gave him his best grumpy face.

"I'll go with Luke!" Sarah waved her paw.

"We'll follow too, then." Flaffy said with Litleo nodding.

"Count us in with them!" Corn and Cob added.

"That leaves me, Commander, Dancing Flower, rock, bird and bell on the other side." Diggs worked out.

"Then let's go." Sean said, making them nod and split off down two new tunnels.

Meanwhile, a group of Scraggy's were standing by a barrel, guzzling down water. "Ah, I feel alive again!" One of them gasped.

"Quit hogging it!" Another complained, taking three big gulps. "Oh yeah, that's good."

"The boss says we gotta pump as much as possible to take once we're full." The third Scraggy reminded them, dangling his legs over whilst sitting on top of it.

"That's gonna be a pain..." The first Scraggy muttered. "...Hey, you guys know the last time we checked on those Pokemon in the saloon?"

"Guess it was a while ago..." The second Scraggy admitted. "Hold on, I'll go and-"

"Dig!" He was interrupted as Luke burst out of the ground, smacking into his chin and throwing him back as his oversized head got him stuck in the sand.

"It's those muchachos!" The third Scraggy gasped.

"Double Slap!" Sarah smacked the second one across the face with her tail.

"Flame Charge!" Litleo smacked into the other one.

"Hey! They're over here! Get them!" More Scraggy's began charging towards them. "Headbutt!" The group jumped back as a Scraggy hit the ground with its head.

"Discharge!" Flaffy unleashed a burst of electricity that zapped all the Scraggy's around her.

"Pin Missile!" Corn and Cob shot white needles that shot straight through them, sending them flying back.

On the other side of the town, Scraggy's cried out as they were thrown up into the air by a Leaf Tornado.

"Mud Shot!" Diggs threw giant blobs of mud using its ears, causing explosions which sent the Scraggy's reeling.

"Wing Attack!" Starrie sliced through two of them at once, dealing major damage with his type advantage.

"Petal Dance!" More Scraggy's were launched skyward as a twister of petals from Maria sent them soaring.

"Uproooooooooar!" Chingling screeched, making the Scraggy's cover their ears and cringe in pain.

"Headbutt!" Roggenrola and a Scraggy bashed against each other, though Roggenrola overpowered him with his rock body.

The Scraggy's continued to circle them as they held their ground. "This is taking too long..." Sean mumbled. "Gotta go take out the leader. Hey! Cover me!" He then sprinted off.

"Where ya going!?" Diggs called after him, before he had to redirect his attention back to the incoming opponents.

Sean stopped as he ran into the centre of the town and looked around. He quickly spotted Sheriff Exca tied to a barrel, and made to move towards him.

"Not another step, punk." He froze and turned to see El Scrafty sitting in the shade, his sombrero tilted down to cover his eyes, before he lifted it up with a jab of his thumb to glare at the Snivy. "Looks like things just got muy hectic around here? It doesn't take a Kadabra to know that it's all you little runts from the saloon."

"We're gonna take back this town, whether you like it or not." Sean told him.

"Well aren't you a cocky little hatchling?" El Scrafty stood up and walked out ten paces in front of Sean. "This town ain't big enough for the both of us."

"Agreed." Sean nodded.

A wind blew across the sands, as the two Pokemon faced off against each other, neither one daring to move. A tumbleweed blew across the area, as the clock above the sheriff's office chimed 3 o'clock. Not noon.

Sean suddenly charged forward with a Tackle, but the distance between them made it able for El Scrafty to sidestep and dodge.

"Zen Headbutt!" El Scrafty's skull glowed blue before he tilted his head back and threw it at Sean, who jumped out of the way as impact sand exploded upward from the force of the headbutt.

'He's strong...' Sean thought as he skidded to a halt. "Growth!" He glowed green for a second, boosting his attack power.

"Hah!" El Scrafty jumped up and clenched his fist as it glowed orange. "Smack Down!" He threw his fist downward, creating a small crater where Sean used to be.

"Growth!" Sean increased his attack again.

Meanwhile, the two groups were still battling the Scraggy gangs.

"Quick Attack!" Luke knocked another one away.

"Low Kick!" A second one caught hum off guard, swinging its leg into Luke's front ones.

"Gah!" The Poochyena gasped as he fell muzzle first into the sand.

"Luke!" Sarah gasped.

"There's too many of them!" Litleo gasped as they were quickly surrounded.

"Just give up now!" "Make it easier on yourselves!" The Scraggy's yelled.

"Mmmm..." Sarah's ears stood up straight as her eyes sharpened. "Don't worry! I'll protect us!" The Skitty jumped out in front of them.

"H-Hey, Sarah!" Flaffy gasped.

"Get her! Headbutt!" All the Scraggy's charged at her face first.

"Move out of the way!" "Now, preferably!" Corn and Cob panicked.

However, she stood her ground as he eyes actually opened up fully, revealing two feline eyes, before she took a deep breath.

"Disarming VOOOOOOOOOOOOOICE!" Sarah launched a blast of pink sound waves from her mouth sending the Scraggy's flying back and crashing into the sand, all defeated.

"Wow...remind me never to get on her bad side." Litleo breathed.

"Are you guys okay?" She asked innocently.

"Y-Yes, we're fine." Flaffy nodded, surveying the defeated Scraggy's.

"No problems." Luke assured her happily.

"Hooray!" Sarah cheered.

On the other side..."Sand Attack!" A Scraggy kicked up sand into Diggs' eyes.

"Agh! You little-!" Diggs cried before he was glomped by Scraggy's.

"Just stop it already!" Maria complained as she hit one with a Needle Arm.

"Seriously, how many are there!?" Starrie beat one more back.

"Theeeeeey are very persisteeeeeent!" Chingling chimed.

"I'm not done yet!" Roggenrola declared, bruised and battered from multiple Low Kicks. "I'll show you guys what I'm made of!"

The rock piece on top of his head glowed a bright red as he swung it back. "Rock Smash!" He then swung it into a Scraggy, sending it flying back, before knocking down two more.

"Ungh! Yeah! We're not done yet!" Diggs threw off the Scraggy's. "Hammer Arm!" He clobbered four of them at once with a swing from one of his ears.

"Let's end it!" Starrie cried as they all fought back.

"STAND STILL!" Scrafty cried as he missed another Smack Down. "Arrrrrrgh! Your so annoying! Fight me already!"

"If that's what you want." Sean suddenly spun on his heel. "Leaf Tornado!" He launched a tremendous green twister from his tail.

"Wha-ARGH!" El Scrafty was sent skidding painfully across the sands from the force of the Growth-powered attack. "You sneaky son of a Furfrou..."

"Tackle!" Sean then launched himself forward with the power of a fast car.

"You wanna go!? High Jump Kick!" El Scrafty thrust his knee out, and the attacks clashed in a burst of power and shockwaves, making both the battlers get launched back.

"V-Vine Whip!" Sean wasted no time in sending two vines extending from his back towards the opponent.

"No you don't!" Scrafty leaned out of the way before grabbing the vines. "Take this you little squirt!" Pulling on the vines he lifted Sean into the air before forcefully throwing him back down into the sand.

"Sean!" Luke gasped as everybody emerged to watch on, even some still conscious Scraggy's.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Roggenrola asked.

"This is a duel, kid. Don't interfere." Diggs told him.

"Low Sweep!" El Scrafty swung his legs, forcing Sean to jump into the air to dodge. "Your wide open in the air! Zen Headbutt!" His skull glowed blue as he jumped up towards the Snivy.

Sean, however, spun his body around to avoid it. "Wrap!" His body suddenly stretched out so that he could wrap himself around El Scrafty, dinding his arms to his body.

"Gah!" He grunted as he fell to the ground. "Stupid-! Let go of me!" He struggled to free himself, but Sean had established his grip.

"You'll...keep taking continuos damage...until you fall!" Sean told him as he tightened his hold.

"Aaagh! N-Not likely...you idiot!" He suddenly in a back curving arc, so that his back faced towards the ground. "Payback!" He gave off a shadowy aura before he launched himself downward, smashing Sean into the sand. The Grass-Type gasped in pain as his attack loosened, allowing El Scrafty to jump a safe distance away.

"Urgh..." Sean groaned as he stood up before the pain could hit any harder. "Tackle!" He recklessly charged forward.

"Hey! Stop!" Flaffy warned him.

"Gotcha." El Scrafty smirked as his fist suddenly burst into flames. "Fire Punch!" He threw a punch directly into Sean, the Snivy's eyes widened in shock as the super effective attack drove into him with the force of a swinging log, before the impact caught up with him and he was sent flying back, skidding across the sands before lying on his back, a nasty burn wound on his chest.

"MASTER SEAN!" Roggenrola cried in horror.

"That's what you get for being cocky." El Scrafty smirked. "Time to finish this! High Jump Kick!" He jumped into the air and began falling down knee first, the velocity increasing its power.

"Look out!" Luke cried. The distance between any of the spectators and the fallen Pokemon was too great to save him before the attack hit.

"Adios!" El Scrafty cried victoriously.

And as the attack was about to make contact, Sean rolled out of the way.

"Aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhh!" El Scrafty screamed as he clutched his knee, which was now covered in bruises from the impact of hitting it into the ground. "Yeowch ouch ouch ouch!"

"Vine Whip!" Without a single pause Sean whipped his vines into the leaders stomach, launching him back in an explosion of sand.

"Master Sean!" Roggenrola cried happily.

"Hah...please...don't call me that..." He panted.

"H-How..." El Scrafty muttered, obviously injured.

"I...I baited you into attacking me..." Sean told him. "I knew you couldn't...resist using High Jump Kick to finish me...so I deliberately charged in...I just didn't expect you to use Fire Punch...that hurt a lot."

"You...little...bastard!" El Scrafty roared as he punch his fists together, igniting both of them. "I'll burn you 'till there's nothing left! Fire Punch!" He jumped towards him.

Sean just smiled though as a green aura overcame him. "Sorry. Overgrow. Leaf Tornado!" A giant, raging green twister of leaves launched out of his tail and tore into El Scrafty.

"Aaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!" He cried as he was tossed and turned by the attack before being driven face first into the ground in an explosion of purple sand and dust.

When it finally cleared, he lay on his back with swirls for eyes.

"Phew...that was...close..." Sean panted before collapsing.

"Sean!" Roggenrola, Luke, Sarah and Starrie all rushed over to him.

"I'm okay, ow...just tired..." Sean assured them.

Diggs went over and untied Exca. "You okay, Sheriff?"

"I am now." Exca nodded, brushing himself down. "Thank you, Diggs."

"Hey, you should be thanking those kids over there." Diggs chuckled nodding towards them.

Exca smirked. "They're fine Quester's. I called in my squad when the takeover started, I was thinking they would help take the Scraggy's out but...I see that's no longer a problem."

"Yeah, about that, why did you send your entire squad all the way to Oreace?" Diggs asked.

"I've been trying to gather information for the Crimson Hope. It's useful to all Quester's." Exca told him.

Diggs' eyes widened. "The Crimson Hope? THAT Crimson Hope?"

"Yeah." Exca confirmed. "I've been looking into information about the Don and the Tyrant."

"Tyrant, eh?" Diggs shook his head. "He's one problem Pokemon, I'll admit that. But the Don is a a small time crook, right?"

"I'm not sure. I have a feeling they're working together." Exca sighed. "And if that's true, it means trouble."

Diggs lit a new cigar. "Guess it would be...but c'mon, don't focus on all that bad crap now. Let's round this lot up and grab a drink."

Exca chuckled. "Sure, I could use one right now."

 _Quest Life_

"This is it." I said as the three of us walked into town. "Looks like Kalamazam was right. Everything seems to be...fine..." I stopped as I saw a whole crowd of Scraggy's and a Scrafty wearing a sombrero all tied up in the middle of the town, with Drilbur's standing guard.

"I take it those are the troublemakers." Julia guessed.

"Guess it really was okay." Sebastian said, looking around. "But, uh...where is everybody?"

I tilted my hat up and looked towards the saloon. "I have a pretty good idea."

We walked over to the saloon (Julia deliberately keeping her distance) and I opened the swinging doors to see everybody celebrating, with Luke, Sarah, Flaffy and Chingling dancing on the tables, whilst Diggs and Exca shared some drinks and Starrie and Roggenrola were just spinning around.

"Hey, guys! I'm back!" I waved.

"Elin!" All of my friends cried.

"Darling!" My eyes widened in horror as Maria jumped out of the ground and tackled me to the floor, her spikes painfully poking me. "I knew you'd come back for me!

"Uh..." Sebastian stared down at me wide-eyed. "Is, this the Maractus you were-"

"Yesssssss!" I hissed in pain.

"Nice to see ya, kid." Diggs waved. "Weren't ya gonna get help or something?"

"I tried, but the Psychic-Types told me that you'd deal with it yourselves." I admitted.

Diggs laughed. "Well, they weren't wrong there! Smartass bunch I always say."

"Good to see your alright, Elin." Sean revealed himself, a bandage around his chest.

"Woah, Sean, what happened to you?" I asked.

"He got a bit of heartburn!" Luke joked, falling off of the table.

"Pretty much." Sean said, noticing Sebastian. "And this is-?"

"Oh, uh, sorry, forgot to introduce myself. Sebastian Henderson." The Drowzee offered a paw.

"Sean Garrison." Thry shook.

"Wow, you sound French." Sebastian noted.

"See? It's noticeable." Sean told me.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not good with accents okay? And this...uh, that over there, is Julia Belaya." I pointed to the Kirlia staying away from the saloon, accidentally poking herself between the eyes to push up non-existent glasses. "She's not good with crowds. They both have the same...predicament as us."

"Ah, right." Sean nodded knowingly.

"Elin! What was Unao like? Tellmetellmetellmetellmetellme!" Sarah cried.

"The buildings floated." I said plainly.

"AWESOME!" She and Luke gasped.

"I also got this." I held out the Baltoy statue, making my friends crowd around me.

"What is it?" Starrie asked.

"Apparently its supposed to direct us to the Temple of Enlightenment. I think that's where the Key Shard is." I told them.

"We're back on track!" Roggenrola cheered.

"Alright! Let's finish partying then set off!" Luke declared to the cheers of the other Pokemon.

"Um, are you sure its wise to be doing that whilst the bandits who attacked you are tied up outside?" Sebastian thought aloud.

"It's no problem! C'mon!" Luke dragged him into the mess.

"Urk!" Sebastian gasped as he was dragged face first into the cluster of Pokemon.

My eyes turned up in a smile at the antics, before walking outside and calling to Julia. "Hey! You coming in?"

"No thank you." She replied with folded arms. "I'd rather stay out here."

"Not one for social events?" I guessed.

"I don't like crowds." The Kirlia responded. "But it is nice. I can feel their happiness through my emotion radar horns."

"I guess you would, seeing as your a Kirlia." I figured as Sean came out to join us.

"I learned it when I was a Ralts." She told me.

"Hold on, you were a Ralts?" Sean asked.

"When I first landed here." Julia gave the Snivy a narrow look, obviously displeased that her audience had grown. "But after I learned my way around and practised my moves, I evolved into a Kirlia."

"You evolved!?" Luke suddenly joined us. "What was it like!?"

Julia's eye twitched in annoyance, before she used Psychic to pick up up a stone and throw it at the Poochyena, making him retreat back inside. "Evolution was...strange. It felt oddly pleasant, like a warmth, accompanied by a sense of growing and stretching. Maybe if I were to study evolution I could determine why I felt like that..." Her voice trailed off into thoughts.

"Aaaaand she's gone." I huffed.

"That's interesting though. Maybe when we were all transformed, we all started off in basic stages." Sean thoerised.

"Guess everybody we've met so far supports that." I figured.

"Y-You..." Our attention was drawn to the bound Scrafty. "I...admit defeat...you were the better Pokemon today, muchacho..."

"What do you want, El Scrafty?" Sean asked with folded arms.

"Nothing...I'm saying I lost...your a tough opponent..." El Scrafty coughed.

"Boss!" One of the Scraggy's cried.

"H-Hey! Listen! Commander! You gotta here us out!" One of the Scraggy's called.

"The boss...he's not a bad Pokemon, man!" Another called. "I know we're just a bunch of Rogues, and the boss acts all mean and tough, but he's only doing that to protect us!"

"Hey, shut up you little runts." El Scrafty muttered. "You wanna ruin my reputation?"

"Reputation ain't gonna matter if they haul you off to Ironside, boss!" A third Scraggy panicked.

"It's tough being a Rogue! You ain't got much wandering around the Rogue Routes! Our group, the Crafty Bandits, we ran out of water! We were in real trouble, man!" A fourth said.

"The boss...he planned this big attack so we could get some more food and water! We were just gonna leave afterwards! I swear on my pants! And they're all I've got!" A fifth panicked.

"He's a really great guy! Please forgive him! Take us instead!" All of the Scraggy's wailed.

"You guys..." El Scrafty sighed.

"If you needed food and water, why didn't you just ask?" I suggested.

El Scrafty gave a pained laugh. "A bunch of Rogues walking into a Quester's town and asking nicely? That would have gone down just peachy. I just do things the way I always do 'em, through the old rough and tough. Look, don't listen to these grunts of mine, I'll take my punishment on the chin, a'right?"

"Noooooo! Boooooooss!" The Scraggy's wailed.

"I think I've heard enough." Me and Sean stepped out of the way as Exca emerged from the saloon.

"Eeeeeeeeek!" The Scraggy's shrieked.

"Exca..." El Scrafty muttered.

"It's true you 'cause a lot of disturbances around the Psychic Sands, but I'll admit you've never actually attacked anybody." Exca sighed. "Boys, round up some water barrels."

"Sir!" The Drilbur's saluted as they scurried off.

"...What's the catch, Sheriff?" El Scrafty asked.

"No catch. Just a condition." Exca told him. "You Crafty Bandits are gonna work with the Quest Moderators. You'll get all the food and water you need through good, honest work."

"Your really offering something like that?" El Scrafty asked skeptically.

"Pretty much." Exca smirked. "And if you don't agree, we'll get these Quester's to beat the crap out of you again."

El Scrafty couldn't help but laugh. "Fine deal you have there, Sheriff. Alright then, guess we gotta accept."

"Yay! We're not gonna die!" The Scraggy's cheered.

"Quest Moderators?" I echoed.

"Basically Pokemon who help out Quester's, and look to expand our knowledge on our world, crack down on the bad guys, all that good stuff." Exca said. "Around here I'm known as Sheriff, but outside this place people call me Moderator #15, Exca. And trust me, kids. After what you've done today, your gonna get some good names in the tales of Quester's.

 _Quest Life_

After everything had died down, we were ready to set off back into the Psychic Sands.

"Oh, darliiiiing! For us to be driven apart again so soon! How cruel fate is!" Maria wailed.

"Miss Maria!" "We're just gonna wait for them to come back!" Corn and Cob pleaded with her.

"Y-Yes! So...please...just...wait here." I finally managed to pry her off of me.

"I'll wait a thousand suns, darling!" She swooned.

'Arceus have mercy...' I thought, tilting my hat down.

As thanks, Gliscor had given out some Gear to us. Roggenrola now had a yellow Sandy Bandanna, which increased the duration of Sandstorm, whilst Starrie now had a Sheriff's Badge Sticker on his chest, that increased accuracy and range. Our group had now increased by two (with Julia deliberately standing further away from the group) and we were ready to set off again.

"Good luck finding the Temple of Enlightenment." Exca nodded.

"Come back for a drink if you need one!" Diggs offered.

"I'll rematch you anytime, amigo." El Scrafty grinned at Sean.

"Gracias, you guys!" The Scraggy's waved.

"Alright then, let's go find that Key Shard!" I declared, holding the Baltoy doll up high.

 **Yes! Finally I completed this chapter**!

 **And guess what guys!? Though its a little late, its Pokemon's 20th anniversary! HAPPY BIRTHDAY POKEMON! Thank you for all the joy you have given us, the times you made us feel happy when we were sad, the friends you helped us make, and the way we have grown alongside you. You are more then a game, you are an experience, a love, and a part of our lives that is irreplaceable. Thank you for everything!**

 **Are any of you hyped for Sun and Moon!? I know I sure am! And hey! If your character hasn't been revealed yet, and if any new Pokemon are revealed, you can always change them! And if you still want to get an OC into this story, you can still submit one!...That also shows that I have no frikkin' idea when this story will end.**

 **In honour of Pokemon's 20th anniversary, we'll have TWO QOTC'S!**

 **1\. What is your favourite memory associated with Pokemon?**

 **2\. What do you want most to appear in Sun and Moon?**

 **As always, thank you so much for reading guys, and I'll see you all in the next chapter. Happy 20th Anniversary!**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Temple Trekking 

**Up Ingredients in the Psychic Sands:**

 **Cool Cucumbers (Increases PP of Water-Type attacks)**

 **Violet Salt (Increases HP)**

 **Oasis Lemon (Increases Speed)**

 **Mean Jerky (Increases Attack and Special Attack)**

 **Wall Nuts (Increases Defense and Special Defense)**

"Elin, are we lost?" Sebastian asked.

"We're not LOST." I told him. "We're trying to find the location in the first place."

"So...lost." He said.

"Nope, it's completely different." I defended myself.

Okay, I admit I had no idea what I was doing, so we were technically lost. After we had set off I only then realised I had no idea where we were supposed to be going. I tried to use the little Baltoy statue like a compass, I tried holding it above my head to the sun like in Indiana Jones (Making everybody stare at me weirdly), heck, I even tried sticking it in the sand to see if it would run in the direction we needed to go! But nope, nothing.

"Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to leave without any proper planning." Sean suggested.

Starrie then flew down and perched on his head. "I scoped out the area, well, tried to at least. Nothing but purple sand as far as my Keen Eyes can see."

"I'll try using my inner hound instincts to sniff out a clue!" Luke declared, before subsequently snorting two naval passages worth of sand and having a sneezing fit.

"This wasn't very smart." Julia stated with brutal honesty, standing away from the general group.

"In my defense, I don't have much to go on." I told them. "Kalamazam just gave this to me and told me it was linked to the temple, so I just thought it would point that way or something."

"Maybe it's like a key or something?" Sarah suggested.

I stared at the little Baltoy statue. 'That certainly seems to be the case...but then where does it go? C'mon, Elin! Think, think, think!' I tapped the side of my helmet in frustration.

"Go northwest."

'Huh?' I looked up and back at everyone to see who had spoken, but they were talking amongst themselves.

"Go northwest." The voice repeated.

'...Wait, this is the same voice I heard back in the Forgotten Castle!' I remembered. 'Go northwest, huh?...At this point, I don't really have any other options.'

"Hey, guys! We're going this way." I pointed before walking.

"What? Why specifically that way?" Sebastian asked.

"Because instinct." I replied, hurrying along.

We continued like this for a bit, with the voice in my head echoing to 'keep going...keep going', easily knocking out an Rogues we came across thanks to our experience, until-

"Here. Look down."

I instantly stopped, causing the rest of the group behind me to stumble into one another. "What's the hold-up?" Luke called from the back.

I fell to my knees and brushed away some sand, revealing a small cream coloured tablet with an indentation in it that matched the bottom of the Baltoy statue.

"Bingo." I said as I slotted the relic into the hole, and it began to glow.

The ground began shaking, and we all ran back as the sand underneath our feet started to bulge, until something exploded up out of the desert. It was completely pristine marble white, despite being buried in the sand for I don't know how long, with a wide rectangular shaped roof with carvings of eyes and swirls lining just below it. The omly entranceway seemed to be a square opening at the top of a flight of stairs lined either side by marble statues of what looked like the GB Mew sprite, whilst two pillars rose up at each diagonal point with carvings of Celebi on them, whilst the walls had murals of the sun, moon and stars carved into them.

"Wow...okay." Luke stated.

"How on earth did you find this?" Julia questioned.

"The statue spoke to me in my mind." I partially lied, I'm apparently very good at making tall tales.

"...Uh-huh..." Sean said.

"Welp, let's go find that Key Shard." I nodded, setting off up the stairs

"Let's go!" Roggenrola declared.

The inside was somewhat bare, with pristine white walls with little windows to let the sunlight through. On the wall at the very back was a mural depicting Arceus with Dialga and Palkia, and underneath it seemed to be a staircase leading down.

"It must have lower levels below the sand." Sebastian reasoned.

"It'll probably be dark down there, then." Starrie nodded. "Did anybody bring a light?"

"No." I said, looking over my shoulder at him.

"Oh my Arceus you just did that!" Luke laughed.

"What? I don't get it." Starrie said, oblivious to the meme.

"Don't worry about it." Sean sighed.

"Anyway, let's hurry." I said, making to step down the first step, only for my foot to push down on a stuck out tablet. "...Crud." After all, it can only mean one thing when that happens.

"Traps!" I cried as I hit the deck just as a hammer swung down from the ceiling.

"What the Distortion World!?" Sean shouted as everybody jumped out of the way.

Suddenly, the right half of the floor cumbled away, making Sean and Roggenrola fall in, whilst Julia teleported away.

"Guys!" I cried, forced to step back as more stone crumbled beneath my feet.

The left half of the floor then disappeared, causing Sebastian and Sarah to fall, with Starrie trying to pull them up with his wings, but to no avail, making him get dragged down as well.

"Incoming, Elin!" I looked to the side to see Luke take a running jump towards me just as his footing fell. Unfortunately I stared at him for too long and he crashed headfirst into me, making me lose my footing and sending both of us tumbling down the stairs into the ruins.

 _Quest Life_

"Ouch..." Sean rubbed his head and groaned. "That wasn't pleasant..." He tried to move, only to feel something squashing his tail. "Huh? Oh no, did a rock fall on my tail?"

"K-Kinda...yeah..." Sean then looked to see Roggenrola on his tail, on his back.

"Roggenrola!" Sean pulled his tail out from underneath the Rock-Type before helping him to his feet. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm a boulder, I don't bruise easily." Roggenrola nodded.

"That's good." Sean nodded, staring up at the ceiling. "It seems we fell quite a way..."

"We've been seperated from the others as well." Roggenrola said.

It was then that Sean noticed something. "Hey...I can see."

"Um...why wouldn't you be able to, Seanpei?"

"Because-please don't call me that-we're currently underground, where no light should be...and yet there's light..." The two of them looked forward to see they were in a corridor...lit by torches. "It appears we're not alone in these ruins."

"B-But this place was buried underground!" Roggenrola gasped.

"We've already seen plenty of Ground-Type Rogues. I wouldn't be surprised if some made a home here." Sean reasoned. "Come on, let's try to find the others."

The two of them walked down the torch filled path until they came to a square room with a door on the other end. The thing about this room, was that there were Unown letters all over the walls, and a certain Kirlia was standing in front of one of them.

"Julia!" Sean said.

"Oh, it's you two." She acknowledged them before returning back to the wall.

"Did you fall down as well?" Roggenrola asked.

"No, I teleported away before I could fall. I deliberately aimed to teleport down into these lower levels and ended up in this room, where I've been trying to read this." She explained impatiently.

"What does it say?" Sean asked, making Julia glare at the wall in annoyance.

"From what I can actually read, it says 'THE GOD OF EARTH BURIED THE TEMPLE TO SLUMBER. THE ALLIGNMENT OF THE SUN AND MOON SHALL REVEAL TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT.'

"What does it mean?" Roggenrola asked, before he was picked up, shrieking, with Psychic.

"Be quiet and I'll try to find out." She snapped, lowering the terrified Rock-Type back to the ground.

"In any case, we should find everybody else before we worry about that." Sean told her.

"Noisy..." All three of them froze as multiple similar voices echoed around them.

"...Did you hear that?" Roggenrola whispered.

"Of course I did." Julia mumbled.

Suddenly, all the Unown letters on the wall blinked and detached, revealing themselves as real Unown. "Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!" They all shouted angrily, several of them charging a Hidden Power, a ball of white light, before blinking to launch them, making the trio jump back to dodge.

"Seriously!? How did you not notice that?" Sean asked.

"How on earth was I supposed to tell!?" She huffed angrily.

"Ngh, Leaf Tornado!" Sean launched the small twister from his tail, and whilst a G, L, S and U were caught in the attack, most of the Unown floated out of the way before launching another round of Hidden Power's.

"Psyshock!" Julia launched her own spheres of energy that cancelled out the opposing letter Pokemon's attacks.

"Rock Blast!" Roggenrola launched several blasts of energy that knocked several Unown out of the air, defeated, making the rest of them group together.

"Let's deal with these things quickly." Sean said.

Julia rolled her eyes, whilst Roggenrola cheered.

 _Quest Life_

"Luuuuuke? Guuuuuuuys? Where are yooooooou?" Sarah called as she ran down the torch filled corridors.

"Sarah, PLEASE stop!" Sebastian begged as he ran after her, followed by Starrie.

"But we have to find Luke and the others!" The Skitty said with sad eyes.

"Obviously, but we have to be careful about this!" The Drowzee said, biting his fingers nervously. "Who knows what kind of other horrible traps are in this place! We could DIE if we're not careful!"

"Aren't you overreacting a bit?" Starrie asked.

"Cautious!" Sebastian corrected him. "I'm just saying, rationally, that we should at least be vigilant, otherwise we might be in serious trouble! Please!?"

"Mmmmmmm!" Sarah put on a grumpy face as she turned and strolled away.

"Geez..." He sighed as he followed her, finally coming into a room with three statues of Baltoys set into grooves on the floor, with a large stone door on the other side. "Looks like there's a Baltoy theme here..."

"Hey! Check this out!" Starrie flew over and perched on a wodden chest with a rusting lock. "A treasure chest! I wonder if something shiny is inside! All of my bird friends would be so jealous!"

"Can we focus, please?" Sebastian begged, examining the room. "This is just a basic slide puzzle. Let's move these statues along the grooves to the switches and see what happens."

"It's gotta open the door! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Sarah declared, quickly pushing one of the statues.

"Carefully! Carefully!" Sebastian panicked, pushing his own statue ever so slightly whilst Starrie straight up barreled into the third to move it.

When all statues landed on their respective switches, the stone door rumbled, before slowly opening. "Now we can keep moving!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Cough!"

The three of them stopped. "Did either of you just cough?" Sebastian asked.

"Nope." His companions replied.

"Bailey! What the heck man!?" A voice suddenly spoke up.

"I'm sorry! That picked up a bunch of dust and I couldn't help it!" The coughing voice answered.

"Great, now you've ruined our dramatic surprise entrance!" A third voice sighed.

It was then that the three Quester's realised that it was in fact the three Baltoy statues, which were ACTUAL Baltoy, who were arguing with each other.

"Double Slap!" Sarah quickly smacked the nearest Baltoy twice across the face.

"They got me!" The Baltoy cried.

"Argh! Fine! Screw the plan! Attack now! Rock Tomb!" The two remaining Baltoy created spheres of rock between their arms and threw them at the group, forcing them to jump out of the way to dodge.

"Wing Attack!" Starrie smacked one of them away with one of his wings.

"Headbutt!" Sebastian headbanged the other, sending it spinning across the ground.

"Confusion!" All three Baltoy's attacked together, launching three rings of violet energy.

"Confusion!" Sebastian threw his own violet ring forward, but it was overpowered by the triple threat and they hit the three of them. "Phew, that didn't hurt too much seeing as I'm a Psychic-Type. Are you two okay?"

"Fine!" Sarah called.

"Mother, my choo-choo train is eating spaghetti with the Rattata's again." Starrie mumbled.

"...Okay, that's not good." He looked at Starrie's eyes to find them glowing purple. "He's confused!"

"I can see the Voltorb's in the sky..." Starrie drooled as he did loop-de-loops in the air. "The planes like to kiss them then invite them over for swampland and crumpets."

"He's lost." The Drowzee sighed.

"Get the rest of them! Ancient Power!" The Baltoy's once again attacked, chucking glowing stones at the other two Pokemon, forcing them to shield themselves.

"Copycat!" Sarah cried as she jumped into the air. "Ancient Power!" She threw stones right back, sending the Baltoy's all tumbling away. "And Disarming Voice!" She launched pink soundwaves from her mouth that washed over the three Pokemon.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!" The three of them cried as they fell back, defeated, crashing into the old chest and bursting it open as they fell to the ground with swirls for eyes.

"That's for delaying us!" Sarah nodded.

"Moo-Moo milk comes from Tauros! It's a conspiracy!" Starrie cried.

"Pull yourself together, bird!" Sebastian cried, smacking him across the face.

"Wha...? What happened?" Starrie asked, dazed.

"Don't worry, we won." The Psychic-Type assured him.

"Really? Coo-ooooooohhhhh!" He instantly flew to the open chest and dived inside. "Treasure!"

"Seriously?" Sebastian sighed.

Starrie emerged from the chest carrying something in his beak. "Look what I found!" He held the treasure proudly, which turned out to be a golden key with a sapphire blue crescent moon on the end.

"A key?" Sebastian thought aloud. "Seriously, slide puzzles, keys, what is this? Legend of Zelda?"

"What?" Starrie asked.

"Nothing. Let's keep moving." They hurried along.

"Why won't you guys tell me this stuff!?" Starrie cried as he flew after them.

 _Quest Life_

"Feint Attack!"

"Bite!"

Me and Luke burst though the group of Unown, making them fall in defeat next to the Baltoy we beat.

"This is just getting annoying!" I huffed, poking my head out of the doorway, only to look upon the rows of interlocking staircases leading into different rooms that we had already seen. "This place is just filled with Unown and Baltoy! And how are we supposed to find the others like this?"

"If we keep checking them room by room, we're bound to find them eventually!" Luke reasoned, only just noticing something. "Hey, look! A treasure chest!"

I looked over to see him wagging his tail in front of an old looking treasure chest with rusting edges. "What is this doing here?...Well, if it's a chest, their must be something important inside. Stand back, Luke." Using one of my dagger hands, I picked the lock, which was actually pretty easy, probably because it was so old, and it popped open.

"What's inside?" Luke asked as I fumbled around in it.

"A key." I stated dangling it from my weapon hand. It was golden despite its presumed age, and had a ruby red sun on the end of it.

"Wonder what it's for?" Luke thought aloud.

"I dunno." I admitted, holding it between my 'hands'. "But it seems important...we should keep a hold of i-ack!" I accidentally let the key slip through my shiny weapons, and I fumbled to grab it again, only for it to clatter across the ground and fall through a crack.

We both stared at the crack in the floor in dumb silence.

"Oh well, back to the original plan." Luke declared cheerfully, prancing off, only to stop when a loud thud was heard. "Um...Elin? Are you okay?"

"I banged my head against the wall because of my own stupidity." I told him, gesturing to it. "Luke, please help, my horn is stuck in the wall."

 _Quest Life_

The last Unown hit the wall with a swirled eye before floating to the ground like a leaf.

"Finally, that takes care of that." Sean huffed, dusting off his hands.

"They were very annoying." Julia said.

"We still beat them, though!" Roggenrola nodded, just before something hit him on the head. "Ow!"

"Hm?" Sean went over and picked the object up. "A key?" He looked up to see the crack in the ceiling. "Did somebody drop this?"

Julia took the key from Sean and examined it. "If it's still in such good condition, it must have been guarded very well. And it's obviously linked to that message the Unown were spelling out before..." She began thinking deeply, before setting off down the other corridor.

"Hold on, we should stick together." Sean said as he and Roggenrola followed him.

Julia led them through several corridors and flights of steps, before they came across a large stone tablet with a red sun on the front of it, and a keyhole in the center.

"Here." Julia said as she inserted the key and twisted, making the wall instantly swallow the key before it rose up. It revealed a room with similar sun markings on the walls, and a Solrock with its eyes closed on the far end wall.

"So then, this must be the sun half." Sean said, looking around. "Though I still don't see how this ties into enlightenment."

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Julia said in annoyance, looking around the room. "Also, could you please talk to him?"

"Him?" Roggenrola echoed.

"I know, I know." Sean sighed, looking at the Solrock. "Hey! Are you awake!?"

"H-Huh!? What!?" The Solrock blinked its eyes open. "Oh, hey! Intruders! Haven't seen guys like you in, like, forever!" He pulled himself out of the wall and stretched his rock spikes. "Oh, dude! I have been asleep for AGES! I need to getback into the swing of things! So, yeah. Yo! I'm Solrock, the Guard of the Sun, ya dig? So, what are you guys up to?"

"We're looking for the 'true enlightenment' that was supposedly here." Sean told him.

"Oh, right, sweet, dude." Solrock chuckled. "Yeah, I'm one of the guardians for that shizzle-dizzle. My sis, Lunatone, goes by the same deal too, y'know? When both our doors are open, you get to meet a true God."

"As in a Legendary Pokemon?" Julia asked.

"What? No, no, lady, a GOD, ya get me?" Solrock swayed. "Like, he rose from inanimateness and sunk this whole temple, see? Me and my sis were just floating around when we got these crazy vibes, man. Told us to become guardians of a God. We thought that was pretty rad, so we got teleported down here, and then we just chilled, right?"

"So your saying that this God teleported all of the Pokemon that live in these ruins down here?" Julia guessed.

"You got it, lady. Pretty sweet deal for folks with no place to go, right?" He then seemed to remember something, and his eyes drooped. "Awwwww duuuuude, bummer."

"Wh-What is it?" Roggenrola asked.

"I just, like, remembered, dude. Since I'm the Guard of the Sun or whatever, I gotta fight you guys, its in my contract you know? So, uh...sorry about this." His eyes glowed as rocks materialised above the three of them. "Rock Slide." The rocks suddenly fell!

"Watch out!" Sean zipped around the rocks as Julia teleported away and Roggenrola jumped back to avoid them. "Looks like its gonna have to be the normal way, then..."

Roggenrola then realised that Julia was crouching behind him. "Um...Julia? What are you doing?"

"My Defense and Special Defense are weak, so you are my shield." She stated bluntly.

"Eeeeeeh!?" Roggenrola panicked.

"Again, like, sorry dudes." Solrock sighed as he floated above them.

 _Quest Life_

"This is pretty obvious." Starrie said, looking at the door with a large blue crescent moon on the front of it.

"This is clearly a trap." Sebastian said. "Or at the very least, a super large indicator."

"No time for thinking, we have to keep moving!" Sarah argued as she twisted the key into the keyhole, causing the door to open, revealing a room with blue crescent moons on the walls, and a sleeping Lunatone stuck in the far wall.

"Oh heck, it's another one." Sebastian facepalmed. "Um, excuse me? We know your not really a statue."

Sarah ran over to the Lunatone and stared at it. "I think it's sleeping."

"I don't really see any other exits in this room." Starrie noted. "We should leave and try to find a different route."

"Finally, somebody thinks rationally." Sebastian said.

"I...am wake...you know..." Everybody stopped at the sleepy female voice and turned to see the Lunatone, still with her eyes closed, ever so slowly tilt, then fall out of its indentation, floating lazily in the air. "You three disturbed my beauty sleep..."

"We didn't mean to!" Sebastian hurriedly replied. "Maybe we'll just leave and let you sleep."

The Lunatone opened her lazy eyes. "Oh...I wish you could do that, but..." She yawned. "I, um...have to battle with you now...I'm the Guard of the Moon so...so...I kind of...have to..." She looked like she could fall asleep any sedond.

"Orrrrrr you could not? That's also an option." Starrie offered.

"No...thanks though..." She yawned as her droopy eyes glowed blue. "Future Sight..."

"Do we really have to fight?" Sebastian said. "I don't think I feel comfortable attacking yo-"

"Wake-Up Slap!" Sarah smacked Lunatone with her tail, sending her spinning into the wall.

"Sarah!" Sebastian cried.

"What? She said so! So fight time!" The Skitty reasoned.

"Yeah...that kinda hurt..." Lunatone whispered as she charged up a ball of black energy. "Shadow Ball..." She launched the attack, but it took a lazy drift, forcing Sebastian to jump out of the way.

"Them's fighting moves alright! Quick Attack!" Starrie rammed into her at high speed, but only succeeding in making her drift lazily to the left. "She's slow! If we attack quickly, we can beat her easy!"

"Oh...right...I forgot..." Lunatone sighed as she glowed. "Trick Room." Suddenly, the four combatants were trapped inside a pink and blue diamond box.

"Oh crud, Trick Room!" Sebastian realised.

"Quick Attack!" Starrie charged again, only to find himself moving incredibly slowly. "Wait, what!?"

"Trick Room swaps all of our speeds..." Suddenly, Lunatone zipped away to the other side of the room at incredible speed. "Now I'm fast...and your slow..."

"I'm so slow! This is annoying!" Starrie cried.

Then, three portals opened up above them, and small meteors of psychic energy rained down on them in colourful explosions.

"Oh...there's my Future Sight..." Lunatone noted.

"Th-This could be harder then we thought..." Sebastian grunted, as Lunatone floated above them.

Quest Life

I covered my eyes as we came into a large room with giant torches on either side of it. square rocks made up the floor, which lead up to a giant set of stone doors, which had a red sun on one side, and a blue moon on the other.

"Agh! Sun! That's probably what the key was for!" I huffed.

"No worries, let's just try it and see if it works." Luke shrugged, jogging towards it.

"I guess we don't have much choice..." I sighed, looking back at all the already checked rooms.

However, as me and Luke walked over to it, the stony floor began to shake ever so slightly, and we froze. "...You felt that, right?"

"Yep." Luke confirmed, as the stones around us all crumbled away, leaving us stuck on a platform in the middles of a chasm. "...Well, fudge nuggets."

"Damn..." I cursed, looking at the distance between us and the door. "Luke, can you jump this?"

He gauged the distance. "I reckon so, but I don't know how your gonna get over, Elin. No offense, but your a bit heavy."

I thought for a moment before remembering something. "Ah! Wait!" I reached into my Hammerspace and pulled out the Technical Candy I got. "If this move is what I think it is..."

Just then the entire platform lurched and began to tip. "Luke! Jump!" I pushed him forward and he took a running leap, landing on the edge and scrabbling with his front paws to try and get a grip.

I hurriedly popped the candy into my mouth, finding it to be slightly bitter with a gooey inside, like caramel licorice. I hate licorice. So I pulled a disgusted face as I swallowed, just before the entire thing collapsed.

'Please work! Please work! Please Work!' I begged as shadows formed around my arms, shaping themselves into five clawed fingers.

"Shadow Claw!" I stretched my shadowy arms up and grabbed onto the ledge, before retracting my actual arms to my extra shadowy appendages, vaulting up onto the other side and quickly helping Luke up before he could fall too.

"Boy..." Luke panted. "That was...not fun."

"Tell me about it..." I breathed, before realising something. "Luke!"

"What!? What?" He jumped.

"I have fingers again!" I demonstrated my new Shadow Claw, wiggling them individually.

"...Yeah, er...good for you, Elin." Luke nodded, whilst I stared at them in fascination. Never thought I'd miss my fingers so much.

We were both then distracted by the sound of grating stone (causing my Shadow Claw to disappear, along with my fingers...) as the sun and moon double doors opened up.

"So they DO open! Must've been a test of luck or something." Luke nodded.

"Um...alright, let's roll with that." I reasoned as we walked in.

And this room was BIG, at least compared to the rest of them, like, auditorium big with a tall ceiling that curved around at the top, and murals similar to the ones at the entrance curving around the walls. The ground was predominantly purple sand, but in the center of the room stood a large stone statue of a Claydol, on a very majestic looking pedestal with archaic wings.

"This place is BIG!" Luke marvelled.

"Maybe this was an important room..." I thought aloud as we jogged across the sand, up to the statue.

"It looks super important! Maybe the Key Shard is around here." Luke said.

"But I don't see anything in here." I gestured around. "The only thing that's here is this statue."

"...STATUE?" We both jumped back as a voice resounded around us. "...HOW DARE YOU REFER TO ME AS SOMETHING SO MUNDANE!?"

Suddenly, all of the lines that comprised the Claydol statue glowed a dark pink, and yellow eyes flashed on as the statue floated into the air, trailing dust behind it.

"The statue's flying! And talking!" Luke cried.

"I AM THE GOD OF THE EARTH! CLAYDOL!" The statue roared. "AND YOU! INFERIOR PEASANTS! HOW DARE YOU TRESPASS INTO MY DOMAIN!?"

"Wait...is this the God those Pokemon worshipped thousands of years ago!?" I exclaimed.

"IGNORANT LESSER BEINGS!" It shouted. "BEGONE FROM MY SIGHT! RAPID SPIN!" The statue suddenly started spinning, creating a small sand twister that forced me and Luke to dig in our heels and run out of the way, shielding ourselves from the stinging sand as the attack slowed down.

Then, in a split second, I saw it. The Key Shard, which glowed a brilliant golden yellow, like that of true sand.

It was stabbed into Claydol's BACK!

"You've GOT to be joking..." I muttered, as the God faced us.

 **New chapter! Sorry this took so long guys, but I've been really busy lately, and well, apparently this doesn't really help my life. If it feels a little bit rushed I apologise for that too, as I had to fit a lot into this chapter.**

 **Moving on from that though, I have to say that Drakon Silverwing and S.D brought up a very good point last chapter. Are there any other characters you want to see returning from Split Worlds? If so, say it in a review or PM and give your reason why they should return, and if it seems popular enough, I'll allow it.**

 **Also, to GuyroMaster, yes, I'm still accepting OC's, and that applies to the rest of you guys as well. As for your application GuyroMaster, they seem to have potential, but please try to establish the personality more, a paragraph AT LEAST, and would it be possible to change the Pokemon choice? Because, well, it's overused...a lot.**

 **Now then, to finish this chapter off, it's the QOTC!**

 **QOTC: Pokken Tournament has been released! If you've got it, who is your favourite fighter and why? If you haven't got it, do you plan to, and why would/wouldn't you?**

 **Personally, I prefer Chandelure for it's long reach and dominating aerial attacks.**

 **So then, not wanting to delay this chapters release any further, I'll see you next chapter!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Vs. the Sun, Moon and Earth! 

**Battle List**

 **The Key Heroes (Win) vs. 'Dancing Flower' Maria, Corn and Cob (Lose) vs. Psychic Sand Rogues (Lose)**

 **The Sword, The Smarts and the Speculation (Win) vs. Da Croc Gang (Lose)**

 **Those Who Wait (Win) vs. Crafty Bandits (Lose)**

 **'Commander' Sean (Win) vs. El Scrafty (Lose)**

 **'Commander' Sean, Julia and 'Iron Ore' Roggenrola vs. 'Guard of the Sun' Solrock (Ongoing)**

 **'Cute Kitty' Sarah, Sebastian and 'Sky High' Starrie vs. 'Guard of the Moon' Lunatone (Ongoing)**

 **'Silver Sword' Elin and 'Dark Hound' Luke vs. 'Earth God' Claydol (Ongoing)**

"RAPID SPIN!" Me and Luke dived out of the way as the enraged 'god' Claydol thundered past us like a demented spinning top.

"Seriously!? In it's back!?" Luke complained. "How are we supposed to get it!?"

"Simple, we beat him." I stated as Claydol turned towards us (I think. Claydol's look the same from every angle.)

"PSYBEAM!" It held up its sphere hands and launched a colourful beam from each. Instinctively, we shielded ourselves, only for the beam to harmlessly envelop us. "WHAT!?"

"...Oh yeah, we're both Dark-Types." I remembered.

"I can't believe I forgot that." Luke admitted.

"INSOLENT CRETINS!" Claydol raged, as rocks materialised above its head. "ANCIENT POWER!" The rocks were hurled towards us, and we jumped back to avoid them, their impact causing several sand eruptions, that gave us a few precious seconds to gain some distance, by running in opposite directions and diving behind some dunes, causing Claydol to spin around for a 360 view. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

I peeked above the sand to see the Claydol looking around. I would've launched a sneak attack, but, again, I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S FACE IS!

"Dig!" Thankfully, Luke did it for me by erupting out of the sand and headbutting it in the side, knocking it off balance.

Acting as quickly as opossible I jumped up from my sand dune. "Feint Attack!" My body was flung into his head with a dark aura, making the former statue wobble around, disorientated.

"RAPID SPIN!" It began spinning again, and as we shielded ourselves, suddenly rocks began floating around as well! "ANCIENT POWER!" The rocks were caught in the twisting sandstorm, and before I could even react a sharp, sudden pain flared in my side as a rock stabbed into me, sending me tumbling across the sand. I was forced to cover my head just to shield myself until the attack died down, and flinched at the sound of falling boulders crashing into the sand.

"Okay...maybe not so simple." I admitted.

 _Quest Life_

"Like, Flamethrower, or whatever." Solrock blew a stream of fire from its nonexistent mouth, forcing Sean to run back to avoid the licking flames.

"Rock Blast!" Roggenrola shot several spherical stones from the jole in its body (whilst Julia still used him as a shield) but the sun rock simply swayed left and right casually to avoid them.

"Confusion!" Julia's eyes glowed blue, along with Solrock, before he was forcefully smashed into the wall by the psychic power.

"Leaf Tornado!" Taking the chance, Sean spun around and launched a twister of green leaves towards the guardian.

"Yeeeeah, no, Stone Edge." Pointed spires suddenly burst out of the wall around Solrock and countered the twister in a giant burst of gravel and wind, leaving time for Solrock to pull himself free.

"He's strong..." Sean mumbled.

"We have to keep on the offense and pressure him." Julia said.

"Don't say that when your hiding behind me!" Roggenrola begged.

Solrock gave out a long groan. "Duuuuuude...it's, like, too dark in here, man. I gotta brighten this place up! Sunny Day!" An orb of light shot out from between Solrock's eyes, and shot upward, stopping just before it reached the ceiling to expand into a tiny sun.

"Now all of his Fire-Type attacks will be stronger." Sean muttered.

"Right on, like, Fire Blast!" Suddenly a huge wave of fire erupted from Solrock's non-existent mouth, bursting apart into the kanji for Fire before charging straight towards the trio.

"Look out!" Sean jumped out of the way, and Roggenrola screamed before Julia clung onto him and teleported the both of them out of range, as the fiery attack washed down the corridor, leaving flickering flames in its wake. "This just got tougher."

"Psyshock!" Not giving a chance to rest, Julia raised her hands, making little pink and violet pixels form around her, before they launched forward like shattered glass and shot straight into Solrock, making him wobble backwards whilst his eyes spun.

"Vine Whip!" Sean quickly punched Solrock across the face (thus, his entire body) with his vines, dealing several sharp blows whilst the sun-like Pokemon could only endure the hits.

"Ow, not cool, bro! Fire Spin!" Solrock began spinning rapidly, until flames suddenly burst forth and he turned into a fiery tornado, which barreled towards Sean, which he rolled out of the way off, the fire only just missing his tail, causing the attack to change direction and charge towards Roggenrola and Julia.

"You can take that attack, your a Rock-Type." Julia said.

"That's not very convincing! Iron Defense!" Roggenrola's body shined brightly just before the attack hit him, the improved defense allowing him to shield Julia. The flame tornado then left Solrock only to surround and envelop the Iron Ore Pokemon, making him cringe from the heat.

"Roggenrola!" Sean gasped.

"I...I'm fine!" The rock replied, though cringing from the continuous damage.

"Psychic!" Solrock was suddenly smashed into the ground, before being lifted up and smashed into the left and right wall alternatively as Julia waved her hand in the launching direction, aiming for the multiple damage to add up.

"That's-ow-not cool-ouch-I can do that-owie-too y'know-ouchie-Psychic!" Solrock glowed himself and halted in the air, as both Psychic-Types narrowed their eyes and began to pant quickly as their minds battled against each other for dominance.

"Vine Whip!" Sean interrupted the mental conflict as he shot both his vines into Solrock's back, sending him crashing against the wall. "Mega Drian!" Green energy tendrils shot towards the injured Solrock, aiming to inflict more damage.

"Not gonna fly." Solrock stated before quickly swerving around. "Flamethrower!" A blast of fire tore through the attack, and Sean gasped in horror as flames enveloped him.

"S-Sean!" Roggenrola cried as the Snivy was sent tumbling across the ancient ground, covered in burn marks, his eyes shut in pain as he struggled to stay conscious from the super effective attack. "You-! Flash Cannon!" The beam of silver light fired from the little fighters face caught Solrock off-guard, and it hit him square in the body.

"Psychic!" Roggenrola was instantly helpless as he was lifted into the air, still enveloped in a ball of twisting flames, before he was flung towards Julia like a meteor, making the Kirlia use Teleport to avoid getting hit, only for the Rock-Type to smash into the ground himself.

"Psyshock!" Julia launched a second psychic attack, which exploded into Solrock, only this time he shrugged it off.

"Stone Edge!" Before she could react, stone spires rose up from underneath Julia and hit her in the back, propelling her into the ceiling before she fell back down to the ground with a crash. "You guys were pretty cool, yo, but nobody can beat the Guardian of the Su-"

He was interrupted as a Leaf Tornado hit him in the back, making him forcefully faceplant the ground, before weakly floating up to see an injured Sean. "Dude, your, like, really stubborn, y'know?"

"Suppose so..." Sean panted, clutching his shoulder.

"I can dig that." Solrock nodded. "But I gotta job to do man, so sorry about this. Fire Blast!" Solrock unleashed a giant blast of kanji-shaped fire which flew towards Sean.

"D-Damn..." He cursed as his legs gave and he fell to his knees.

At the last second, Roggenrola jumped in front of him and dug his stone heels in as the blast enveloped him in crimson flames. Sean looked on wide-eyed as Roggenrola grunted in pain from enduring the fire, until the flames finally died down, upon which he stumbled and fell onto his back, smoke emanating from his body.

"Roggenrola! Are you okay!?" Sean cried.

"P...Perfectly...fine..." Roggenrola coughed. "Just a little burnt..."

"Aw, man..." Solrock sighed. "That's a real bummer, makes me feel like a downer."

"Don't worry..." Roggenrola sat up. "I'll...I'll definitely protect everybody! I don't mind anymore, I'll gladly be a shield for everybody!"

Sean smirked. "Good for you, Roggenrola. C'mon, let's end this." His body glowed green as Overgrow activated, and Roggenrola stood up.

"Woah...serious attitude, dudes." Solrock said. "I'm gonna have to give it my ultimate very best!" Just then, the light seemed to die down, and everybody looked up. "...Not cool, my Sunny Day ran out."

"What a shame." A dusty Julia spoke with a demonic aura.

"I-I'm not gone yet, dudette!" Solrock argued. "I'll end this right now! Flamethrower!" He unleashed a stream of fire from his mouth.

"Leaf Tornado!" "Flash Cannon!" "Confusion!" The silver stream of light was enveloped by the twister, whilst a purple violet ball of psychic energy enveloped it, before the trio attack collided with and easily overpowered the fire before smashing into Solrock.

"NOT COOOOOOOOOOL!" Solrock cried as the force of the attack smashed him through the back wall, revealing a long corridor which he skid across before finally stopping, his eyes having become swirls.

"That was close..." Sean sighed.

"We had a three-on-one advantage to begin with. I wasn't worried." Julia shrugged.

"But your still injured." Roggenrola pointed out.

"That's irrelevant." Julia muttered as she brushed debris out of her hair. "It looks like the path continues on. Let's go."

"Right." Sean agreed whilst leaning on Roggenrola for support, before they continued moving on.

 _Quest Life_

Sebastian cried out and dived across the ground to avoid the Ice Beam Lunatone launched, encasing the ground behind him in solid ice.

"This is bad!" He panicked, biting the ends of his fingers. "None of us have any super effective moves against her, and now she's really fast!"

"Wing Attack!" Starrie slashed with his wing, but Lunatone easily dashed out of the way, before her eyes glowed.

"Rock Slide..." Stones instantly materialised over the Starly's head, making him glance skyward whilst swerving erratically to avoid the falling attack.

"Wake-Up Slap!" Sarah hit the moon Pokemon in the back with her tail from behind, sending her cartwheeling through the air.

"H-Headbutt!" Sebastian threw his head forward, but he was literally hitting a rock with his skull, so he 'somehow' suffered recoil damage. "Ouch!" He rubbed his head in pain as Lunatone righted herself.

"Why can't you just...let me sleep..." She asked drowsily as she slumped over in the air, her eyes slowly closing.

There was an awkward pause, until soft snoring could be heard. "...She seriously fell asleep." Sebastian stated, dumbfound.

"Wow." Sarah gaped in awe that the fact somebody could fall asleep during a conflict.

"This is our chance!" Starrie said as he flew above them. "Let's hit her with everything we've got!"

"Better take advantage of the opportunity." Sebastian agreed. "On the count of three, we'll attack together. One, two, three!"

"You were too quick!" Sarah complained as they jumped forward together.

"Wake-Up Slap!" "Confusion!" "Wing Attack!" They launched their attacks together with such force the subliminal message was smashed into the other side of the wall, rocks tumbling down and crashing into her.

"Oh no...I fell asleep..." Lunatone emerged from the rubble, now covered in bruises and injuries.

"Alright! Take that!" Starrie cheered, when the giant glowing cube encasing them disappeared.

"And now Trick Room is gone as well!" Sebastian nodded. "We may actually have a chance now!"

"This is...really, really bad..." Lunatone yawned. "I guess I'd better..." She closed her eyes again.

"Is she sleeping again?" Sarah wondered aloud, when the moon rock was coated in a pink light.

"Crud! She's using Rest!" Sebastian realised.

"What!? But that'll heal up all the damage we did!" Sarah cried.

"Quick! We've gotta attack whilst she's asleep!" Starrie coaxed them.

"Confusion!" "Quick Attack!" "Wake-Up Slap!" "Peck!" "Double-Slap!" "Headbutt!" They continuously launched attack after attack, whilst Lunatone slept on, and the minimal damage was piling up.

"Wing Attack!" Starrie charged forward, only for Lunatone's eyes to open. "Shoot!"

"Oh...Ice Beam." Starrie swerved sharply to the left, but the blue lightning pierced through his left wing, and he cried out in pain as numbing cold overcame him, and he crashed down to the ground.

"Starrie!" Sebastian and Sarah gasped, the basic birds right wing had been completely frozen, and put out of action.

"Future Sight..." The two remaining Pokemon could only watch as Lunatone's eyes glowed blue. "Psywave..." A snaking ray of purple and pink energy wobbled its way towards them.

"Confusion!" Sebastian tossed a ball of purple and violet energy, and the two attacks collided in a burst of rainbow coloured energy lightning.

"Shadow Ball..." Lunatone lazily shot the attack towards the Drowzee.

"Brilliant idea time!" Sarah jumped forward and hit the Shadow Ball with her tail, rebounding it back and making it hit Lunatone instead, sending her spinning and crashing into the wall. "Success!"

The cry of success was cut short, however, as the psychic meteors of Future Sight rained down on them in diamond explosions, forcefully pressing them into the ground.

Meanwhile, Starrie was struggling to move with his frozen wing. "Come on...come on!" He couldn't eve move with it weighing him down. "There must be something I can do!" He dug deep, deep within himself, looking for the strength to get out of this hopeless situation.

And he found something.

Lunatone floated above the injured Sebastian and Sarah. "Sorry...it looks like this is the end..." She began to charge up an Ice Beam.

"Ugh..." Sebastian grunted as he only just forced himself to his hands and knees.

"Not...yet..." Sarah also tried to stand.

Suddenly, a bright light emanated from the corner of the room, and everybody turned to see a glowing shape. The sound of shattering ice could be heard as the light suddenly sped forward at incredible speed and struck Lunatone, making her cradh into the ground.

The light then descended next to Sebastian, where it burst apart to reveal a Staravia standing there.

"No way...Starrie!?" Sebastian gasped.

"Alright! Take that!" Starrie cheered. "You guys okay?...What's with the looks?"

"You evolved!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Wait, I did!?" Starrie looked himself over. "Hey, I did! I guess I felt my body become stronger and bigger for a moment...so this what evolution is like. And the flock said I'd never evolve! In your face, Steve!"

"No fair..." Lunatone whined as she floated up.

"We're not done yet!" Sebastian said as the trio readied themselves once again.

"I think I can do this, now I'm a Staravia! Aerial Ace!" Starrie flew forward at incredible speed and slashed past Lunatone like a strike from a sword, sending her reeling back with a moan of pain.

"Can't keep fighting...too hurt...too tired..." She closed her eyes and began to use rest again.

"Not this time!" Sebastian declared as he ran and jumped onto Lunatone, before opening his mouth and beginning to suck on her head.

"Oh, dude! What are you doing!?" Starrie pulled the best disgusted face he could with a beak.

"Is he using Dream Eater?" Sarah tilted her head at the odd situation, before giving a half-lidded look. "Nope nope, he's just literally eating her dreams.

A startled Lunatone woke up to feel Sebastian drooling over her head, causing her to scream and throw him off.

Sebastian tuck and rolled as he landed, before licking his lips. "To give you credit, your dreams were delicious."

"Don't ever say that. EVER." Starrie said.

"Gross!" Lunatone screamed, now fully awake. "You drooled all over me! This is DISGUSTING!"

"Starrie!" Sarah called up to the bird. "Grumpiggy back!"

"Got it!" He agreed as he swooped down and Sarah jumped on his back, the two of them speeding towards her.

"Oh just get AWAY from me already! Ice Beam!" She recklessly launched the attack, only for Starrie to swerve out of the way.

"Aerial Wake-Up Ace Slap!" The two of them smashed directly into Lunatone, driving her into the ground with their combined attack, leaving her with swirled eyes in the middle of the crater.

"Thank Arceus!" Starrie sighed in relief. "Only took my evolution."

"Victory for us!" Sarah declared triumphantly.

"And I got a snack out of it." Sebastian nodded, sounding very chuffed indeed.

"I don't think I'm comfortable around you anymore." Starrie said, before the left wall opened to reveal a passageway. "Let's just move."

 _Quest Life_

"Charge, Luke!"

"I'm trying! I really am!"

"Hey, this was your idea!"

"Yes! But I didn't realise how HEAVY you were!"

"Rude..."

Explanation: don't worry, we were still in a life or death battle against a floating Claydol statue God, normal there. Except Luke had devised a plan in which we could work together, like a knight and wolf combo. Unfortunately, as I tried to stand on Luke's back, we both forgot to factor in my iron body.

"Jeez..." Luke panted as his legs wobbled, whilst I was trying to balance myself. Why was I standing up instead of sitting on his back?...That dirty little thought says it all.

Meanwhile, Claygol was just staring at us (I think) fuming. "YOU DARE INSULT ME!? A BEING LIKE MYSELF!? I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH DISGUSTING DISRESPECT!" It aimed its two innuendo arms at us as electricity crackled around them. "CHARGE BEAM!" Two bolts of lightning fired towards us.

"Ack!" Luke instantly took off, avoiding the explosion as I crouched to stay on.

"Oh hey! You did it!" I praised, now having second thoughts as he was actually running and I was wobbling a bit.

"And it only took nearly getting hit by lightning!" He practically screamed in panic.

"ANCIENT POWER!" Rocks began to hurl towards us with Claydol's psychic power, and I'm not talking about little rocks, I mean boulders! Luke dodged and weaved inbetween the gian stones as they smashed into the ground, making sand splash out from the impact like golden water.

"Feint Attack!" Luke quickly changed direction and ran straight at Claydol, jumping forward as a dark aura surrounded the both of us.

"CHARGE BEAM!" Claydol fired more lightning at us, only this time we were mid-jump, and defenseless!

Thinking quickly, I bent my knees and forcefully jumped off of Luke's back, making me fly overneath the attack whilst Luke was pushed underneath it, and he took the chance to burrow down into the sand.

"Night Slash!" I pulled back both my blades as they extended into black swords, and I swung at him with all my might.

"RAPID SPIN!" Claydol almost instantly spun at a rapid pace, turning into a giant spintop. as my attack landed, the rotational force proved much stronger as Is simply bounced off with a sharp pain, making me quickly spin in the air so I could safely land in the sand. However, I was caught by surprise as the still spinning Claydol suddenly charged forward and rammed into me. Thankfully, my Steel-Typing reduced the damage, but it was still sharp, stung, and sent me stumbling back.

"Dig!" Luke burst out of the ground, but Claydol spun away before curving back around and hit the Poochyena, sending him flying across the sand.

"I SHALL DISPOSE OF YOU, FIRST!" Claydol roared as it aimed its arms. "HYPER BEAM!" A red and silver beam of destructive energy shot out of its arms.

"Luke!" Acting quickly I dove and grabbed him, pulling us both out of the way of the big explosion caused from the attack, making us shield ourselves from the impact debris. "That...was too close."

"Sorry to make you save me." Luke said as he shook the grit out of his fur.

"All part of the plan." I waved it off as we faced him once again.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!?" Claydol rumbled. "I SHALL ENVOKE ALL OF MY WRATH UPON YOU!"

"Feint Attack!" Both me and Luke charged forward with a dark aura.

"RAPID SPIN!" Our double attack clashed with Claydol as he spun, however, the attack still rebounded us and sent us toppling back, but whilst I fell on my back and lost precious seconds just to get back up, Luke landed perfectly and immediately sprung back into battle.

"Bite!" As soon as Claydol stopped spinning, Luke latched onto him with his fangs, making Claydol cry out in pain.

"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!?" He spun around again, throwing Luke off, tumbling across the sand. "CHARGE BEAM!" He quickly followed up with two blasts of lightning.

"Oh no you don't!" I ran forward as Luke jumped away from the attack, whilst I stopped in front of it. "Time to show you the evolution of my Scratch!" I held my right dagger out as it lengthened into a silver needle. "Cut!" I slashed through the lightning, making it tear apart the ground either side of me, before I junped forward using the lightning as a connection, and slashed him across the body, leaving a scar.

"INSOLENT LITTLE SINNER!" Claydol smacked me with one of his balls (hands) which made me jump back, landing on Luke's back.

"This isn't going very well." He stated.

"Yeah, no." I agreed. "It's that Rapid Spin that's protecting him...We've got to try and piece it!"

"I'm with you on that!" We both charged towards him again.

"Feint Attack!" "Metal Claw!" I held my glowing metallic daggers out in a spear shape ahead of Luke as a dark aura surrounded us both, the light of my claws reflecting and fusing with the darkness, creating a black and white stream of energy.

"RAPID SPIN!" Claydol began spinning again as we charged forward.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" We both cried as we stabbed straight into Claydol with a burst of energy, black and white lightning crackling around us as Claydol was launched all the way to the other side of the room, smashing into the wall.

"Alright!" Luke cheered.

"It worked! Anime logic is right! I'll never doubt Thunder Armour again!" Luke gave me a look. "Okay, okay, a little."

"FOOLS..." We quickly shifted back into a battle stance as Claydol emerged from the debris smoke, a hole in his stone body. "YOU CANNOT HOPE TO DEFEAT ME! I WILL DEMONSTRATE THE DIFFERENCE IN OUR LEVELS OF POWER! BEHOLD! THE STRENGTH OF A GOD!" His body began to glow golden, and suddenly, the sand around us glowed golden too.

"EARTH POWER!" Almost instantly, massive fissures exploded up out of the sand, and I cried out in agony as a horrible pain flashed throughout my body, as if my muscles were trying to be torn apart. I think being a Pokemon gave me a much higher pain tolerance, as if I felt this pain whilst I was a human, I'd be crying like a bitch.

Whatever the case, it still hurt like hell, and I barely felt myself collapse back into the sand, aching filled my cells with every beat of my heart, and I couldn't even move.

"Elin!" Luke stood above me. "C'mon, no time to be laying around!" He quickly gave me an Oran Berry, placing it on my nonexistent lips, and I just let it fall into my mouth before chewing and swallowing, the pain slowly fading.

"CHARGE BEAM!" Luke quickly dug a hole and pulled me in as a bolt of lightning flashed above us.

"Attack now whilst we have the chance!" Luke said as he jumped out of the ground. "Quick Attack!" In the blink of an eye he dashed over and hit Claydol making him wobble.

Ignoring the remaining ache, I jumped out and extended my blade. "Cut!" I quickly stabbed him in the head, toppling him to the ground, but that still meant he could look directly up at me!

"HYPER BEAM!" He fired the laser, and I leaned away from it, but I still felt it hit my helmet/head and cause an explosion, making the sound of ringing the only thing I could hear for the next five seconds as I landed on Luke's back, as we dashed acrosd the sands before charging in from the other side.

"Bite!" "Shadow Claw!" As Luke's claws crackled with dark energy, shadowy arms and clawed fingers (still happy about that) formed around my arms.

"CHARGE BEAM!" It fired lightning at us again, only I launched my ghostly appendages at it in a stabbing lance motion, making the two attacks cancel each other out in an explosion, leaving Luke free to latch onto its head with his jaw.

"Fury Cutter!" With Luke incapacitating his head, my daggers glowed green as I frantically slashed his body and head, leaving multiple and increasingly deeper slash wounds as I swung frantically, trying to do as much damage as possible.

"ENOUGH!" Claydol roared as it threw one arm into each of us, making us fall flat across the ground. "EARTH POWER!" It and the sand began to glow gold again.

I suddenly felt a small nip in my hand, which was actually a bite, as Luke forcefully tossed me over his head just before the fissures emerged and launched him into the air.

"Luke!" I gasped as he crashed down into the sand whilst I landed safely.

"RAPID SPIN! HYPER BEAM!" I threw myself into the sand as Claydol recklessly spun and launched several Hyper Beam blasts, obliterating the walls around us in a random, reckless assault as I shuffled over to Luke.

"Take your own advice, Luke." I told him before opening his mouth and placing an Oran Berry in it before it snapped shut.

"Thanks." He gulped it down.

A large crash diverted our attention, and we both jumped to our feet as debris rocks began to fall around us, and the walls had large cracks covering them. Claydol hovered above us, firing Psybeam's into the ceiling.

"YOU ARE ALL BENEATH ME! INSIGNIFICANT PESTS! I AM THE RULER OF THE EARTH! CLAY DOL!"

"Right, I'm sick of him." Luke decided. "Wanna finish this up?"

"Yep." I agreed as I jumped on his back and we both jumped up.

We landed on a large debris rock, before jumping from one to the next, using them as platforms to ascend higher and higher, closer to Claydol.

"YOU WORTHLESS THINGS! HYPER BEAM!" Claydol launched the most powerful one yet, engulfing the rocks around him.

I jumped off of Luke as he rolled out of the way of the attack, and I flew towards Claydol, my arms crossed, as two dark blades emerged from my daggers.

"YOU...YOU...!"

"Night Slash!" I shouted as I slashed him again and again with my blades, until I flew past him, the sound of destruction and rumbling replaced by an eerie silence.

Until, the slashes caught up with Glaydol, and giant gash marks exploded out of his body and across his face.

"HOW...?" Claydol murmured. "HOW CAN A GOD LIKE ME...LOSE TO SUCH LESSER BEINGS...?" The light left its body, and the statue broke into pieces, crumbling into dust, as a blinding yellow light fell down.

"Gotcha!" Luke cheered as he jumped and caught the Yellow Key Shard inbetween his teeth, whilst I landed in the sand, before flopping onto my back as I allowed the exhaustion to wash over me. "Phew...dat wash closhe."

"You can say that again..." I breathed, looking over at the remains of the Claydol statue. "So the Yellow Key Shard was what made him come to life..."

"Huh? I don't get it." Luke mused.

There was a rumbling, and we looked over to see two passageways open up. Out of one came Sean, Roggenrola and Julia, whilst out of the other came Sebastian, Sarah and...a Staravia?

"Sarah!" Luke cried.

"Luke!" The Skitty responded as they literally tackled each other into the sand, laughing happily.

"Thank Arceus we found you guys! Are you okay?" Sebastian asked.

"A little burnt, but otherwise alright." Sean said. "You?"

"Alright, actually." He shrugged.

"Wow! Starrie! You evolved!" Roggenrola marvelled.

"Yep! I'm a lot tougher now!" The Staravia nodded.

"Can I ride on you now?" The rock asked.

"Um...we'll see." Starrie replied hesitantly.

Julia picked up the Yellow Key Shard that Luke dropped. "So this is a Key Shard..."

"Oh, you found it!" Sean noted. "Difficult?"

"Quite." I agreed.

We were interrupted as the sound of breaking rock resumed, and the walls began to crumble. "This room isn't gonna last much longer!" I stated.

"Over there!" Sebastian pointed to a third corridor which just opened up.

"Let's hurry!" Luke cried as we all ran down it whilst the room behind us gecame filled with sand. The corridor began curving upwards and we ran up as fast as we can, when sand began to fill it up from the bottom, and even as I pumped my legs as hard as possible, I flt myself fall back against the rising sand, which actually acted like a moving wall and pushed the rest of us along.

Then, without warning, we were launched high up into the air by a geyser of sand. From what I could make out whilst I was cartwheeling through the air, it had turned to night, then I felt my whole body jolt as I came to a sudden halt, and a constricting feeling in my legs. Looking down I found my entire lower half was stuck in the purple sand from the force of the throw.

"Great Balls." I sighed as I wiggled around to try and free myself, eventually pulling myself out and dusting down. I looked behind me to see the Temple of Enlightenment, still intact, before glancing around to see everybody else stuck as well.

I grabbed Sean by his tail and uprooted him like a Super Mario 2 plant, the Snivy spitting sand out of his mouth, as everybody else managed to free themselves.

"Woooooooo YEAH! Let's go again!" Luke cheered.

"No." Julia sternly decided, brushing sand off of her lab coat/skirt.

Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm just glad we're finally out of there."

"In that case, you must tell me everything you saw."

We all turned around as I recognised the familiar voice, to see a certain Pokemon floating there. "Kalamazam?"

The Alakazam nodded as Reuniclus floated beside him. "A pleasure to finally meet all of you. I have much to thank you for. Let's discuss things over dinner in Unao."

 **Finally! New chapter! I have been temporarily freed from my student life to bring you this chapter! Praise Arceus!**

 **And yes indeed, folks! This marks the end of the Yellow Shard Arc! Hooray! I hope you all enjoyed it! And sorry it took so long...but in any case, I hope you guys still liked it! A lot of you guys think I did some Sun and Moon referencing...what makes you think that?**

 **Now then, an important announcement! I'm adding another new aspect to Quest Life! As you can probably guess by now, Arcs are set up by staying in Oreace before setting off to the next destination, so...what about the Questers who are left behind?**

 **Here's how this new aspect is going to work: Before the beginning of a new Arc, YOU guys get to vote, through review or PM, which Quester's should go, and which Quester's should stay in Oreace! Elin is a guaranteed each Arc since he's the primary protagonist, but the rest your free to decide, with the maximum number being 8.**

 **So then, you ask, what are the benefits to leaving a character in Oreace? Well, each Arc, a special, single chapter will be devoted to those who remain in Oreace, which will focus entirely on characters, feelings and relationships.**

 **Think of it like this: Those who set out in the next Arc will be given extra appearance time in chapters and some good ol' fights. Whilst those in Oreace will get character development, and maybe even some romance with a love interest. Good call either way, right? And it's all up to you guys! The next Arc is coming up, so tell me your thoughts and opinions!**

 **And with that new aspect out of the way, it's time for the Question of the Chapter!**

 **QOTC: Do you do any type of 'Locke' challenges? If so, which has been your favourite/most memorable one?**

 **Currently, I'm doing a Pokemon X Wedlocke. My OTP is my male Greninja, Bubblegum, and my female Sylveon, Cupcake. My other pairing is Coffee the male Gengar and Ice Cream the female Abomasnow, and I am currently searching for a third pair (And considering I just beat Lysandre...yeaaahhhh...I lost a lot. The worst had to be Jelly the male Inkay and PeanutButter the female Helioptile. THEY WERE SO PERFECT TOGETHER!)**

 **Thank you all so much for reading as always! And I shall see you all next chapter!**


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